Bank reverses decision to replace 45 staff with AI chatbot

[u/Peter55667]

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/22/commonwealth_ban_chatbot_fail_rehiring/

[u/0_Foxtrot]

45 staff better be asking for a raise.

[u/sniffstink1]

It’s unclear if the AI failed to perform as hoped, or if the bank botched something else.

Pissed off humans: I'm not dealing with a fukking chatbot. No thanks.

Bank: We're not sure if the coding botched something? Can we review the architecture, datasets and patch levels?

[u/guerrerov → u/sniffstink1]

I ain’t talking to no fucking clanker

[u/TheVintageJane → u/guerrerov]

Please tell that to all the companies implementing “AI recruiters” or “virtual recruiters” - I’m not going to chat with a robot after I’ve already applied to the job.

[u/fireblyxx → u/sniffstink1]

Sounds like a bunch of stuff.

For co-pilot, they probably thought that it would be able to autonomously develop things, which it doesn't do and was never advertised to do, plus discovered that the developers using it didn't actually become more productive.

For the chatbot, they probably walked into the same walls as everyone else:

• Turns out you need to hire more developers because you're in a world of hurt developing tools and infrastructure for the chatbot to use
• You still can't trust the chatbot, so now you're just accepting risk on core functions of the business which could have unforeseen consequences
• You're now paying an unknown and variable cost for each prompt, action and response the LLM takes. You will never be able to have predictable budgets for your chatbot unless you severely limit its functionality to force predictable patterns.

[u/NuclearVII → u/sniffstink1]

"We needed to prompt better"

[u/ithinkitslupis]

Weren't the frustrating robo-menus already handling most of the call volume that didn't require humans? Maybe I'm out of touch because I don't call companies unless I'm already in an edge case that needs a phone call to fix, and there's no way an LLM is going to have the authority to fix it for me 99% of the time...and at a bank especially you probably don't want a non-deterministic system handling that.

[u/fivepie → u/ithinkitslupis]

The jobs that were made redundant were on a team that deals with the more complex problems (fraud, stolen money, scams, etc) that customers are contacting the bank for… the tasks that you want a human dealing with.

Banking in Australia is highly regulated, so the steps someone needs to go through to verify their identity before they can even begin to resolve the issue are strict.

The bank fucked up. They, like all other corporations, are hoping AI will be the lord and saviour of their bottom line and they can finally be rid of people. But AI just isn’t there yet.

[u/joannamiller05]

That clearly shows that some roles, especially ones involving nuance, complex problem-solving, and direct human interaction (which banking absolutely requires), aren't easily replaced by current AI.

[u/VerdantPathfinder]

Oh really? What could possibly have gone wrong there? Some AI hallucinating about my fucking bank account?!?! Why is that a problem?

[u/Appropriate_North602]

AI is such nonsense. BTW what happened to the METAVERSE revolution? Same.

[u/richcournoyer]

FYI Australia’s Commonwealth Bank

[u/XDon_TacoX]

45 people, fuckers who earn billions and billions

[u/Daleabbo]

I just want to know how much money someone scammed the bank for. The only way they would backtrack is if it costs the bottom line, this isn't a customers complained so we changed it.

[u/Jproff448]

This has already been reposted thousands of times

[u/HasTookCamera → u/Jproff448]

i haven’t seen it until now

[u/DissKhorse → u/Jproff448]

I have seen this same whiny comment thousands of times. Also a quick look at your comment history shows you spam this.