Australian companies are beginning to replace human roles with AI “agents” as the cost of machine intelligence falls sharply, accelerating a restructuring of white-collar work. Logistics software firm WiseTech Global plans to cut 2,000 jobs amid an AI overhaul, while Block Inc., which owns Afterpay and is listed on the ASX, told employees it will reduce headcount by roughly 4,000, citing new tools that enable “smaller and flatter teams.” Superloop says AI now handles most customer interactions, allowing growth without new hires.
Under the hood, companies are deploying task-specific software agents that sit atop large language models—such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Grok—and shop between models for the cheapest tokens, the basic unit of AI output. Token prices have plunged, turning LLMs into near-commodity utilities even as public valuations imply premium margins. Chinese competitor DeepSeek is further pressuring prices with low-cost and free tiers that offer strong reasoning capabilities.
The rapid adoption of agentic AI points to higher productivity but rising job displacement risk. If intelligence becomes a commodity input akin to electricity, investors may face margin compression across the AI stack while enterprises reorganize around automated workflows.
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