Qantas to offshore work; house prices to fall 10pc; European rivers dry up
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Fear and Greed, business news you can use. Today, Qantas joins the growing number of companies offshoring work as it embraces AI. Household spending picks up, keeping an interest rate hike on the table. And some of Europe's biggest rivers start drying up, disrupting trade and tourism. Plus, National Australia Bank forecasts house prices to drop 10%. And a surge in tech stocks on Wall Street helps the local market get to within 1% of an all-time high. It is Wednesday, the 5th of August, 2026. I'm Michael Thompson, and good morning, Sean Aylmer. Good morning, Michael. Sean, the main story this morning, Qantas is in discussions to outsource up to 1,000 positions to India as part of a deal with consulting giant Accenture as it works on cutting costs and overhauling its operations using artificial intelligence.
Now, it comes as several big corporates, including Woolies, Telstra, NAB, are all offshoring jobs as part of the AI revolution. Known as Project IQ, the Qantas plan would include outsourcing part of the airline's marketing, finance, human resources, and other back office positions, according to the Financial Review. The report says Qantas plans to employ more customer-facing staff as part of the deal.
A decision on whether to proceed with the plan and how many jobs will be cut is expected this year. A Qantas spokesman said the airline was looking at ways to accelerate the use of technology and AI to help modernise the way the national carrier operates. Which isn't exactly a denial that it's happening. Outsourcing is a tricky business, particularly for Qantas. It's fallen foul of both the law and public opinion in recent years over management of staff. Most notably, two years ago, it was found to have unlawfully outsourced 1,820 ground handling jobs. It was ordered to pay a record $90 million fine plus $120 million in compensation to the affected workers. Since then, Chief Executive Vanessa Hudson has spent about $230 million in customer improvements.
Largely, she's reversed the spiral in Qantas' PR fortunes, I would say. But this news probably doesn't help things.
No, but... Sean, you've got to say that, isn't this really just the way business is going now in an artificial intelligence world? Because they're hardly on their own doing this. Woolies has said it is sending head office jobs offshore. National Australia Bank is hiring more staff in its Vietnamese and Indian offices, I think. Wesfarmers is even offshoring roles in its Officeworks business.
Yeah, and that Telstra Accenture deal last year, a $700 million seven-year AI and data joint venture. In fact, that organization is who Qantas is working with. What I find interesting about this, remember AI was supposed to replace offshoring? Oh, yeah. It just hasn't eventuated. And the reason is AI requires large amounts of human infrastructure to implement infrastructure. Right. Clean the data, integrate the tools, test the different outputs, write the different prompts, all that sort of stuff. It needs like lots of technical expertise. It needs a really large skilled workforce that isn't expensive. It's kind of why countries like India, the Philippines and Vietnam are really benefiting from this.
And so rather than AI preventing outsourcing, we're actually seeing a lot of companies outsourcing on the back of AI, which sort of flips it from where we started. In any case, I kind of do agree with you.
How did Qantas' Project IQ propose offshoring up to 1,000 jobs to India?
This is just the way the world is going.
Yeah, it does feel like Qantas, Woolies, NAB, Wesfarmers, tip of the iceberg, right? And we will likely see plenty more follow suit. Now, Sean, yesterday, what a cracker for the local share market, right? The S&P ASX 200 closed at its highest level in five months. It's just half of 1% off its all-time record. By the finish, the Bourse had risen 1.4% during the session to 9,146 points.
On fire, the tech stocks did best while healthcare and financials also outperformed. Only the utilities index went backwards. Among the large caps, National Australia Bank jumped 3%, as did Macquarie Group.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:06–3:49
2
How did Qantas' Project IQ propose offshoring up to 1,000 jobs to India?
3:49–4:51
3
Why are other major Australian companies also offshoring roles with AI projects?
4:51–12:54
4
How does implementing AI actually increase demand for offshore technical teams?
12:54–16:44
5
Which Wall Street tech gains pushed the ASX to within 1% of its record high?
16:44–17:36
Speakers
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