AI Isn’t Coming for Jobs
The future of work isn’t human or machine, it’s human with machine - AI isn’t going to steal your job, but someone who’s highly fluent in using it might.
So, the idea is to get amongst it, experiment with the AI and realise that it is an efficiency tool that can be put to work in any number of ways.
“AI is no longer emerging, it’s embedded. Its role in education is shifting from optional to an essential tool, and the priority now is ensuring students and educators alike are adequately equipped to use it to achieve optimal outcomes. With proper use, it can support personalised learning, automate admin and provide instant feedback at scale,” says Craig Costello, internationally renowned cryptographer and Professor of Computer Science at QUT.
“In my current role, much of my work centres on exploring how thoughtful tech integration across tertiary studies can empower both educators and students to extract the most value and impact from their learning experience.
“A good way for students and teachers to upskill into AI is to get hands-on with it. Experiment with generative tools, explore short-form courses, and stay engaged with emerging conversations and best-practice. Technology is an ever-evolving discipline, and staying involved is the key to staying ahead.”
The fear is dissipating around job losses to AI, but even in the relatively short lifespan of generative AI, we’re already seeing the conversation shift from fear to fluency.
If they do achieve a sentient AI that will make a massive impact, but Costello isn’t hand wringing just yet.
“If we ever reach sentient AI, and that’s a big if, it will raise ethical, legal, and existential questions well beyond the workplace. For now, we need to focus on real-world AI impacts, not science fiction,” he says.
A recent PwC report reveals the urgency to upskill Australia’s workforce. It’s a wake-up call on the global need to digitally upskill as a survival mechanism in the workforce. It shows AI-skilled roles are growing nearly 3x faster than the job market overall, and Australia is lagging in comparison to other leading global economies.
Across many industries, digital fluency in this kind of tech is now being considered a baseline expectation, not a bonus skill, and it’s shaping a more valuable workforce.
The report also says AI is making workers more valuable, with wages rising twice as quickly in those industries most exposed to AI compared to those least exposed. Wages are rising for AI-powered workers even in the most highly automatable roles, suggesting that concerns that AI is devaluing automatable roles in the aggregate may be misplaced.
The pace of change is brisk though skills for AI-exposed jobs are changing 66% faster than for other jobs, more than 2.5x faster than last year. AI is redefining roles faster and faster and creating rapid change in the skills required to succeed in AI-powered jobs.
Opportunities are there for the next-gen workforce of tech/AI specialists but training needs to start early - as early as primary and secondary education, and most definitely within tertiary education.
“If we want to lead globally in AI and emerging tech, we need to build that capability pipeline now. In my role and more broadly across the university too, this is a key focus: our programs are designed to meet national demand by embedding AI and digital fluency across disciplines, ensuring students don’t just understand the tools - they know how to use them to solve real-world problems from day one,” he says.
Costello’s area of expertise is cryptography, and that discipline is looking at massive change, not the least post-quantum cryptography.
“Quantum computers will, one day, break today’s encryption, and post-quantum cryptography is how we can actively future-proof our digital infrastructure - not just nationally, but globally. I’m deeply passionate about this and am proud to be leading the charge at QUT in helping steer Australia’s transition to next-gen security solutions that will safeguard our nation’s digital future.”
Amazon has recently invested 20 billion dollars in a high-end data centre in Australia which will underpin a burgeoning AI sector. Amazon’s investment signals confidence in Australia’s digital future, but it also raises the bar.
“These kinds of moves set new expectations for talent, infrastructure, and innovation, and it’s up to our education sector to keep pace. In my role (at QUT), we’re focused on equipping graduates with the technical capabilities, critical thinking, and adaptability needed to thrive in a fast-evolving digital economy, ensuring they’re not just job-ready, but future-ready.”
Image by Pavel Danilyuk