The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) has said it will no longer axe 45 customer service roles and replace them with an AI-powered voice bot as planned.

Last month, the bank announced that the jobs would be made redundant because the new technology had led to a reduction in call volumes.

However, members of Australia's Finance Sector Union said that this was an "outright lie" and didn't reflect what was really happening in direct banking.

The union said that call volumes were instead increasing, with the bank “scrambling to manage the situation” by offering staff overtime and directing team leaders to answer calls.

According to the organisation, it escalated the dispute to the Fair Work Commission after the bank continually refused to be transparent about call volumes.

In a statement shared with Bloomberg, CommBank admitted it had not adequately considered all relevant business considerations, with this error meaning that the roles were not in fact redundant.

“We have apologised to the employees concerned and acknowledge we should have been more thorough in our assessment of the roles required,” the spokesperson said.

They added that those impacted by the move are being offered the choice to continue in their existing roles, seek another position, or leave the firm.

Last week, CommBank signed a multi-year partnership with OpenAI to offer its customers and employees advanced AI solutions.

Through the collaboration, engineers from CommBank and OpenAI will work together to develop advanced generative AI solutions designed to strengthen fraud detection while offering more personalised services to customers.

The agreement will see CommBank employees gradually gain access to OpenAI's advanced AI tools, including its enterprise-grade AI solution, ChatGPT Enterprise.

CommBank has said it is also investing in comprehensive training and professional development programmes to increase AI capabilities and integrate the responsible use of AI across its workforce.

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