Fewer layers, higher expectations: What’s changing in tech hiring

Fewer layers, higher expectations: What’s changing in tech hiring

Posted September 21, 2026

Tech hiring has produced many a headline this year, with a notable recent one being Uber reducing its global workforce by around 10%, affecting roughly 3,300 people.

Atlassian had also announced approximately 1,600 job cuts earlier this year, and WiseTech Global says its AI transformation program reduced around 1,200 roles across Product and Development and Customer Service.

These decisions weren’t all made for the same reasons. Some were about reducing organisational complexity, others were explicitly designed to re-allocate investment into AI, products or growth. All in all, however, it does point to a shift in how technology teams and companies are being built.

Headcount is under greater scrutiny, generalist demand is softening, organisations are holding tightly to critical capability, and hiring managers are asking more from every new hire.

Our recruitment specialists here at Talent share five shifts employers should consider when shaping their technology teams.

1. Growth no longer guarantees headcount growth

Historically, business growth meant headcount growth, and more customers meant more teams, more managers and more specialised functions.

Now, even growing businesses are looking closely at whether every role and layer still serves the next phase of the organisation.

Steve Tompkins, Head of Government at Talent Sydney, believes employers should look beyond job titles when planning their workforce:

“When you’re reviewing a role or management layer, look at what that layer has actually contributed over the past 12 months, rather than relying on the job description or KPIs alone.”

A role can appear necessary on an org chart without solving a current business problem and, at the same time, a position that looks easy to remove may be carrying institutional knowledge, key relationships or responsibilities that are difficult to see until they’re gone.

The pressure is therefore shifting from headcount justification to capability justification. Before deciding whether to add, replace or remove a role, employers need to really understand:

  • What work must happen
  • Which outcomes matter
  • Where accountability should sit

And it becomes particularly important when an organisation replaces someone who leaves. A like-for-like hire might feel efficient, but is it the right move for a workforce structure designed for tomorrow’s business priorities?

2. Coordination-heavy roles are facing greater scrutiny

This one’s particularly clear in Uber’s recent restructure, resulting in a leaner organisation with a flatter structure. And Steve is seeing the same expectation in state government, where fewer executive layers are creating broader leadership remits.

The knock-on effect for candidates is that it’s changing what organisations now expect from technology and delivery leaders.

As Steve puts it:

“In the current market, valuable leaders understand the work their teams do deeply enough to get involved when needed. They are not necessarily doing the team’s work, but they need to be able to make informed decisions, unblock delivery and apply their expertise.”

Critical thinking is central to this. Employer conversations around AI have shifted from whether leaders can use it to whether they can critically assess what it produces, challenge its responses and improve the outcome.

Flatter structures and broader remits may also allow for faster decision-making, but they don’t necessarily mean improved delivery. Remove too much connective tissue and organisations can lose institutional knowledge, mentoring and oversight.

The goal should be that each and every organisational layer has a clear job.

3. Hiring investment is shifting towards specialist capability

Some of the clearest hiring signals can be found in what companies are funding following their workforce reductions.

Atlassian shared their restructure would help self-fund further investment in AI and enterprise sales and acknowledged that AI is changing both the number of roles required in some areas and the skills mix it will need in future.

WiseTech’s movements tell a similar story, with the company’s R&D investment increasing by 29% alongside a reduction of 1,200 roles.

Demand for technology talent also extends well beyond the technology sector.

Qantas is establishing a Product Innovation Centre in Adelaide that’s expected to house more than 420 product managers, digital designers, software engineers and data and AI specialists. The airline is bringing critical technology capability in-house to improve customer experiences and build new digital products.

Majella Sanders, Account Director at Talent Sydney, sees the same redistribution in client demand:

“Demand remains strong for niche technical skills around AI, data, cyber security, cloud, enterprise applications and product engineering, while demand has softened across more generalist skill sets. What remains a challenge is not finding one skill in isolation, but the combination of technical depth, relevant industry experience, commercial thinking and strong stakeholder capability.”

More candidates may be available overall, but that hasn’t translated into greater availability of the specialist capabilities employers need. Clients are also becoming more selective and looking for people who can make an immediate impact.

This is why restructures and skill shortages can exist simultaneously.

4. Location is becoming a capability decision

Where technology work happens is also becoming a more deliberate business decision.

Uber plans to concentrate global teams in New York and San Francisco, regional teams in designated regional hubs and technology teams in technology hubs. They’re also asking most remote employees to move to an office, with only around 1% of its workforce expected to remain fully remote.

Qantas has made a different location bet, choosing Adelaide for its Product Innovation Centre based on the city’s technology community, universities and capacity to scale local capability.

These decisions show that location strategy isn’t simply a return-to-office debate but a strategic capability decision, considering where specialist talent is available, where teams can effectively work together, which capabilities need to sit close to the business and where new talent pipelines can be developed.

Candidates are weighing those decisions just as carefully.

According to Melissa Haddad, Account Executive at Talent Melbourne:

“The market has become less flexible, with more employers enforcing set office days as a non-negotiable requirement. Two or three days in the office is generally accepted, but fully onsite roles can be harder to fill, particularly when the location is not easily accessible.”

Employers can set the working model that suits their business’ priorities, but each restriction can influence the talent pool available. If a role is scarce, highly specialised or difficult to relocate, location requirements need to be factored into the hiring strategy from the very beginning.

5. Evidence of impact matters more than an impressive title

A more selective hiring market changes what employers should look for and what candidates need to be able to demonstrate.

Melissa explains:

“Job titles can mean very different things across organisations. Employers now want to understand what someone has actually delivered, the scale and complexity of the work, and the difference they made, not simply how many years of experience they have.”

And it’s particularly important as remits broaden and technology changes how work gets done.

Majella has also seen a change in client expectations with the rise of AI tools for roles such as software engineers and developers:

“It’s less about AI replacing technical professionals and more about clients expecting them to know how to use it effectively while still being able to apply strong technical judgement.”

The strongest candidates will be able to explain:

  • What they built, delivered or improved, and the problem it addressed
  • The scale and complexity of the work, including the decisions they personally owned
  • The measurable business, customer or operational impact
  • How they simplified work or used AI and automation while applying sound judgement
  • How their experience could transfer into a different role, industry or technology environment

This also matters for professionals affected by restructures.

Melissa shares:

“Redundancies have become so common that there is much less stigma around them. Be open about the restructure, then focus the conversation on what you achieved and what you can bring to the next employer.”

What should employers do differently?

There is no one universal playbook, however all signs are pointing to a more disciplined approach to technology hiring.

Before adding, replacing or removing roles, here’s what employers should consider:

  1. Start with the outcome. Define what the team needs to deliver before defaulting to an existing title or structure.
  2. Separate coordination from valuable delivery leadership. A role that connects teams, resolves trade-offs and owns decisions may be essential. A layer that exists mainly to pass information upwards may be less so.
  3. Identify the capabilities the business must keep in-house. Security, data, AI governance and core architecture are areas many organisations are becoming more reluctant to outsource completely.
  4. Build the whole brief. Technical skills alone may not be enough. Industry experience, commercial judgement, problem-solving and stakeholder influence are often what make a specialist genuinely difficult to find.
  5. Treat location as part of the talent strategy. Office requirements, access to specialist communities and local development pathways will shape who is available.
  6. Plan for the capability left behind. Removing roles can affect mentoring, institutional knowledge, risk oversight and team capacity. Those responsibilities don’t disappear when the position does.

Tech hiring has become more selective and employers are increasingly concentrating investment, removing complexity and expecting every role to carry clearer accountability.

The goal shouldn’t be the smallest and leanest possible team, but the clearest one; built around the capabilities the business must own and the outcomes it needs to deliver.

Candidate supply may have increased in some areas, but people who combine specialist depth, sound judgement and proven impact will remain hard to find.

If you’re reviewing your technology team or planning your next hire, our specialists can help you identify the capability you need and find people with the depth to deliver it. Get in touch.

From use to impact: How is AI really changing the way we work?

From use to impact: How is AI really changing the way we work?

Posted September 17, 2026

Prefer to watch the conversation?

Hear JP Browne, Emily Zhang and Jack Jorgensen unpack the findings and share their perspectives on AI governance, workforce readiness and measurable business impact. Watch the webinar on YouTube.

Webinar Transcript

Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability while staying true to the spirit of the conversation.

JP Browne: Hi everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we discuss how AI is really changing the way we work. A couple of housekeeping notes: there will be time for Q&A at the end, so please enter your questions during the webinar and we’ll get to as many as we can. There will also be a recording in case you need to drop off early. I’m your host, JP. I’m a Practice Manager at Talent in Auckland, and today I’m joined by Jack Jorgensen, General Manager – Data, AI & Innovation at Avec. Hey, Jack.

Jack Jorgensen: Hey, JP, good to be back with you this year.

JP Browne: I’m also joined by Emily Zhang, Founder and Director of The HumAIn Impact. Hi, Emily.

Emily Zhang: Hi, JP! Hi, Jack. Glad to be here today.

JP Browne: Last month, we released our latest AI research, based on insights from more than 1,500 leaders and professionals across Australia and New Zealand. The QR code gives you ungated access to the full report, and we’re going to explore some of its findings today. Last year, most organisations were still piloting and experimenting. This year, AI has firmly found its place in many workplaces. Now that usage is up and access to the tools is wider, the question is: how can we move from simply using AI to building measurable business impact? At a high level, the report shows that 53% of respondents have implemented AI in workflows or embedded it in strategy. That’s quite an improvement from last year. Eighty-five per cent report efficiency gains, but only a very small proportion can actually measure those gains. On the policy front, 79% say the rules are clear, yet many people remain unsure about what data they can put into AI tools. We’ve seen how quickly AI has moved into everyday operations, but these findings suggest that organisational readiness hasn’t kept pace. Jack, when you look at the findings, what stands out for you?

Jack Jorgensen: It’s definitely that increase to 53% in implementation. It’s a giant leap on last year. When you put that against the 16% who are very confident about what can be used within AI, it makes me quite concerned. You have this extreme growth in adoption with very little change in how confident people are using the tools. That 23% who have never received training or a policy refresh also concerns me, given the giant increase in implementation.

JP Browne: Emily, do you see the same gap from a people and change perspective?

Emily Zhang: Absolutely. At the moment, everyone is racing to implement AI, but what AI is trying to solve is sometimes unclear across organisations. Giving someone access to a tool isn’t the same as giving them the capability to use it. People need to apply judgement, with humans in the decision-making loop. The organisations making progress are treating AI adoption as an organisational change initiative, not just an IT and technology rollout. Three things need to move together: governance, capability and ways of working. How is AI actually embedded into your processes to improve the way you do things? People need to know not just which tools they can use, but what they remain accountable for.

JP Browne: Jack, nearly four in five people say their organisation’s AI rules are clear, but only 16% are confident that employees understand what data can and can’t be entered. Where do you think that disconnect comes from?

Jack Jorgensen: I think it comes down to a couple of things. An organisation-wide policy covering which tools can and can’t be used is a good starting point, and any organisation that hasn’t implemented at least basic governance and policy should do that now. But many policies miss the detail of what information can be entered into AI and what data should and shouldn’t be used, as well as the specific use cases for departments and teams. In one part of an organisation, the data may not be sensitive and can be used quite freely. Other parts of the same organisation may need more stringent rules. Policies need to be tailored and refreshed so teams can use the tools with confidence. Another concern is that AI companies and vendors are constantly changing their policies on how data is used, stored and handled. IT and corporate governance teams must keep checking whether their chosen vendor is securing data properly—and communicate any changes clearly to the organisation.

JP Browne: What does effective AI governance look like in practice, beyond simply creating a policy document?

Jack Jorgensen: Guardrails all over the place are probably the first thing. IT should define the scope of available tools, put new tools through the organisation’s required security checks and ensure appropriate controls and logging are applied—or, in some cases involving personally identifiable information, not applied. I’d also look at how often policy and training are refreshed. Are teams revisiting this every six months to a year? With the technology moving at this pace, having so few people receive current training is extraordinary. Governance requires constant refreshment.

JP Browne: Following on from Jack’s point about training: almost a quarter of respondents have never received AI training or had an AI policy refresh. Even when training is happening, does that necessarily mean people are equipped to use AI well?

Emily Zhang: No—and that’s one of the most important distinctions we can make. I’m seeing a real mismatch in maturity across organisations. Some people are already using AI in an uncharted way, while some organisations have rolled out tools without guardrails or policies. Training is an input; capability and adoption are the outcomes. Knowing how to use a tool doesn’t mean it is being used effectively to achieve the intended outcome. Someone can complete an AI course and still not know when an output needs to be challenged, when to apply critical thinking, what information they shouldn’t put into a system, or how to incorporate AI into their workflow and responsibilities. A fit-for-purpose framework, practical guardrails and clear principles are important—not just a 50-page policy document.

JP Browne: Only a quarter of managers feel very prepared to manage AI within their teams. Emily, why are managers so important to whether AI adoption succeeds or stalls?

Emily Zhang: Managers set the tone. They’re close to the processes and workflows, and they’re the change champions who lead the implementation and rollout of AI. They have a lot of influence over people’s behaviour. AI implementation isn’t just about a tool; it’s about adoption. You need to take people on the journey, and managers are pivotal to that process.

JP Browne: Jack, from a technology and governance perspective, what do managers need to know, and what guidance should the organisation provide?

Jack Jorgensen: Managers should start from the assumption that their teams are probably using AI, even if it isn’t formally embedded in the organisation. I’ve seen a huge amount of grey AI and grey IT, so assuming your team isn’t using it is a concern. Every team produces something—a physical product, a digital product, an asset or another form of output—and the manager is ultimately accountable for its quality and its impact on the business. Managers should define guardrails, standards and governance, and work with the organisation to shape the rules for their department and the teams around them. Any AI implementation should add value, not reduce the quality of what the team produces.

JP Browne: A final question for both of you: how do leaders create enough freedom for employees to innovate without creating unnecessary risk? Emily, would you like to go first?

Emily Zhang: Psychological safety is important, as is leading by example. We’re at a point where people are testing AI and exploring how it can improve the way they work before embedding it into processes. We need to balance the freedom to try with guardrails and frameworks that help people approach it in the right way—without losing data, entering inappropriate information or compromising company security and intellectual property.

JP Browne: Jack, what’s your thoughts?

Jack Jorgensen: From a practical perspective, I’d create environments or sandboxes that are disconnected from production. If you want a culture where people have the freedom to innovate without adding risk, give them a place where they can test, explore and fail safely. That produces far better results than someone vibe-coding against production data and systems. If you want a safe space to innovate, you have to create an environment where the risk is contained.

JP Browne: Moving on to time saved and value created: on the face of it, these findings look positive. But while we may be getting things done faster, most organisations can’t yet demonstrate what that speed is delivering. Jack, does saving time automatically mean an organisation is creating value from AI?

Jack Jorgensen: No. I’m not going to leave it there, though. Saving time in my process is wonderful, but I may have accidentally created a flood of additional work for the teams and consumers downstream. I might be producing more output, but if its quality has declined and another team has to correct it, that isn’t creating value. Different teams also define value differently. Take a call centre: is the goal simply to get the customer off the phone quickly, or do we value understanding and resolving the customer’s issue properly? Time saved alone doesn’t work as a metric. Saving time doesn’t necessarily mean you’re generating additional value for your team or the organisation.

JP Browne: How should organisations account for the total impact of AI rather than just the time it appears to save?

Jack Jorgensen: I’ll lean on software development and engineering. A year or two ago, AI measurement focused heavily on token usage and lines of code. Any software developer will tell you that lines of code is a terrible metric: writing more doesn’t make the work more efficient. Instead, look at the measures that show how a team creates value even without AI. In software, that might include bugs in production, the speed of prototyping and releasing new features, and error rates. Measure those outcomes before and after applying AI or another form of automation, while checking that you’re not creating more work downstream. Start with the metrics that already define what good looks like for the team, then see whether AI moves them in the right direction.

JP Browne: Emily, what happens when organisations make AI adoption or usage the target rather than being clear about the outcome they want to achieve?

Emily Zhang: The biggest issue is that you can end up optimising for activity and volume rather than value. If an organisation sets a target that 80% of employees must use AI, it can achieve that easily but still have no visibility, control or transparency over how people are using it. People might use AI at work to write recipes, plan holidays or get relationship advice—not necessarily to improve their work. You still don’t know whether it has improved productivity, quality, customer experience or employee capability. People start using AI because they’re expected to, rather than because it improves the work. Start with the problem, define the outcome, redesign the workflow and then decide whether AI is the right intervention. A mature AI organisation isn’t the one that uses the most AI; it’s the one that understands where AI can create value and whether the added complexity will improve business outcomes.

JP Browne: Jack, if usage and time saved don’t prove ROI, how can organisations start to measure it? Is there a new set of AI metrics?

Jack Jorgensen: Not really. There are AI-specific costs to factor in—token costs are an obvious one, particularly as subsidies change—but measurement still comes back to what makes the team good at what it does. Use the organisation’s existing measures of success and failure, then keep a close eye on how they change. Don’t be afraid to change a measure if it isn’t useful. If you focus on total usage, people will gamify the system. That might produce attractive numbers for the board, but it doesn’t show that value has been added. You can only demonstrate value by measuring what makes the organisation good, while understanding the side effects you don’t want.

JP Browne: Some organisations are clearly ahead in their use of AI. Emily, how can an organisation assess progress without creating heavy oversight or excessive measurement?

Emily Zhang: The more mature organisations have carefully considered the outcome AI is meant to create. The trick is to measure outcomes, not usage. What does success look like? What are we trying to achieve, and why are we doing it? That ‘why’ is where you gain adoption and buy-in. Without it, people get lost in quotas, which have never been a compelling story to follow. Start with a small, meaningful set of measures linked to the reason AI was introduced and to the specific work of the business. If the objective is faster customer response, measure response time, response quality and customer outcomes. If it’s reducing administrative effort, check whether that capacity is actually released and redeployed into higher-value work. You can add a small number of risk indicators, such as error rates, exceptions, rework and incidents. AI isn’t always perfect, and the output can become cookie-cutter if we don’t keep humans and critical thinking in the loop.

JP Browne: AI creates real value when it improves how people work. How should leaders involve employees in deciding where AI could help most?

Emily Zhang: Start with the people doing the work and involve them as early as possible. Leaders can set the strategy, but the people doing the work will tell you how it can be operationalised effectively. Frontline employees often know exactly where the friction, duplicated effort, system hand-offs and decision bottlenecks are—things leaders may not see. Their insight is essential when designing how AI should be embedded into a process from the bottom up. Instead of leadership saying, ‘We’ve bought this AI tool; where can we use it?’, ask teams what success looks like, what their day-to-day pain points are and where they lose the most time, data or motivation. I would always start with the people.

JP Browne: Jack, what would give leaders confidence that an AI use case is delivering enough value to continue, scale or invest in it?

Jack Jorgensen: It comes down to the measures you set out to achieve. An AI use case has the cost of the application and token usage, the cost of developing it and the long-term cost of running it. Cost isn’t only a dollar figure; it also includes downstream impacts and corrections, as well as the benefits of smoother processes. Establish at least high-level measures around those factors. You should also listen to the teams. Are downstream teams saying it creates more work? I’ve seen organisations implement AI strategies that completely overwhelm the receiving team, forcing them to hire three or four more people to recover the process. Balance the costs of growth and development with the positive and negative impacts on people and downstream systems. That should give you reasonable confidence about whether to invest, pause until the technology matures, change course or stop altogether.

JP Browne: We’ve looked at where readiness is falling behind and why time saved doesn’t automatically equal value created. Let’s bring it together with a quick-fire round on what organisations can do next. Jack, what makes a workflow a strong candidate for AI, and what makes it a poor one?

Jack Jorgensen: I’d look for as much determinism in the process as possible. Automate the simple, predictable portions so you’re not using AI—and paying the associated cost—to make straightforward decisions. Then use AI for the ambiguity: parsing text, analysing customer feedback and processing information that conventional logical control structures can’t handle. That gives you a starting point from which to explore other processes.

JP Browne: Emily, what input should the people doing the work provide before a pilot begins?

Emily Zhang: First, understand the current state: what is happening now, how people do the work and what their day-to-day looks like. Identify the pain points, bottlenecks and issues they want to resolve. Then define the successful outcome. Can AI take us part of the way or all of the way, and how should it be embedded to improve the process? The fourth element, which is particularly important in AI implementation, is human accountability. Where a process will rely heavily on AI, decide where human decision-making must remain and who is accountable at each point.

JP Browne: Jack, before introducing AI into a workflow, what should an organisation baseline—and, perhaps more controversially, who should own the result?

Jack Jorgensen: The person accountable for the process should own the result. If you want to outsource a task to AI, that’s fine, but you’re still accountable for what it does. That accountability sits with the team and, by extension, the organisation. If something goes wrong, it still sits on your shoulders. From a baselining perspective, identify the measures that define improvement for that process and track whether you’re hitting those targets as you go.

JP Browne: Sticking with you, Jack: what are the non-negotiable guardrails every AI pilot should have?

Jack Jorgensen: Don’t touch production. The number of AI systems I’ve seen developed directly in production is unsettling. Keep the data somewhere that can’t affect production systems, maintain backups—and then maintain more backups. When the pilot begins to interact with production, start slowly. Put a few cases through, turn it off, check the results and make sure it’s behaving correctly. Ramp it up gradually, with a ‘whoopsie-daisy’ handle that lets you switch it off quickly and roll back automatically if something goes rogue.

JP Browne: Emily, how do you make those guardrails useful enough that people follow them rather than find a workaround?

Emily Zhang: A 50-page policy will get lost, and both the technology and sentiment around it are changing quickly. You’ll constantly be updating that policy if it’s your only guardrail. It’s more practical to establish clear principles about what people can and can’t—or should and shouldn’t—do, supported by examples. Set out escalation paths: how people identify and raise an issue, and who they raise it with. Be clear about approved tools, such as using the company’s GPT rather than a personal account, and provide role-specific guidance. Some AI tools will be relevant to certain functions and not others. The risk appetite and framework have to be practical so everyone understands what good and responsible use looks like.

JP Browne: Beyond simply knowing how to use a tool, what should role-specific AI training give people and their managers?

Emily Zhang: Role-specific training should answer practical questions. What can AI help me do well? What shouldn’t I use it for? How do I check its work, and who checks it if I don’t? What am I still accountable for? Am I accountable for managing the AI’s work or for the ultimate delivery? How does this change my job, and where can I reinvest any time saved? For employees, that means practical capability: prompting, evaluating outputs, handling data appropriately and recognising when something isn’t working. A business or function might build a useful prompt library, an endorsement process or a process map. Leaders need an additional layer covering workflow design, quality assurance, performance expectations, team capability and how roles may evolve. I’d put particular emphasis on judgement. As AI gets better at producing answers, the differentiator is knowing whether the output is fit for purpose and ready for its intended audience.

JP Browne: Jack, what decisions should managers be trusted to make, and what guidance needs to come from the organisation?

Jack Jorgensen: Managers should have some freedom to make decisions for the processes they’re accountable for. There still need to be overarching policies and restrictions, particularly around personally identifiable information, but managers should also be able to escalate an issue so the organisation can work through it. Organisational guidance should make the boundaries clear, including who to speak to about security, overreach, excessive use and costs. Beyond that, you want to harvest ideas from across the organisation because you will find diamonds in the rough. The organisation should make exploration accessible while maintaining the safety and security it needs.

Emily Zhang: It’s freedom within a frame: flexibility, but within clear boundaries. The organisation and its leaders need to identify and communicate those boundaries while creating the psychological safety for teams to explore and be curious. Curiosity is one of the biggest traits we’re seeing behind successful AI use and the redesign of work to make it fit for purpose.

JP Browne: It’s interesting that you’re both touching on guardrails so heavily, because many of the audience questions are about exactly that. One final question for both of you: what is one practical action an organisation could take next week to move from AI use towards meaningful impact?

Emily Zhang: For me, it’s going back to the problem we’re trying to solve. Where are we now? What do we want to do better? How do we think AI will help, and how will we know we’ve succeeded? From a change perspective, ask: what are we doing, why are we doing it, how are we going to get there and what does good look like? The horizon might be six months, 12 months or years, depending on the complexity.

Jack Jorgensen: I’ll swap hats with Emily and talk about people for a moment. There’s real merit in creating a forum where people can share what has worked, the problems they’ve run into and how they solved them. Someone may realise that an idea also solves a problem elsewhere. Most organisations are more siloed than they like to admit, and people focus so closely on their own context that they don’t see what’s happening in other areas. Create a regular, safe space where teams can explore and test ideas together. That can shift you from several people separately using ChatGPT to make PowerPoint slides to recognising a shared use case for a pipeline of asset creation. You won’t discover that without collaboration.

Emily Zhang: It’s a ‘build it once, share it for all’ approach, which creates another time saving. I love a hackathon: get everyone together to bounce around ideas. You don’t know what you don’t know. You might be using a tool one way, then hear that the person next to you is prompting differently and getting a better PowerPoint output. There’s a lot of value in sharing ideas and being curious together.

JP Browne: Before we move into Q&A, a final question for both of you. AI use is becoming standard. What separates someone who simply uses the tools from someone who can apply them responsibly and create real value?

Jack Jorgensen: Oh my God—slop. Slop is the easy one. I see people take an idea, put it through ChatGPT, hand the result over without reviewing it and ask for a proposal. When you speak to them, they don’t understand their own process. That doesn’t serve the organisation. You’ve created a giant hole and a giant problem—a kind of human DDoS attack—because that person can no longer work through the issue properly, and I can’t provide an effective solution because they don’t understand the problem. The difference between simply using a tool and applying it well is understanding what you’re applying it to. I’ve been saying this for years: don’t outsource understanding. Don’t outsource your understanding of your processes and hand everything to AI. It will come back around and make it look as though you don’t know what you’re doing.

Emily Zhang: I agree with Jack. I’m seeing a lot of proposals and write-ups that look stock-standard. Now that we’re more familiar with how AI produces content and PowerPoint slides, we can spot it a mile away. That’s absolutely fine, but it’s where the human decision-making loop matters. Check your work—at least proofread it. If AI has saved you time, use that time to critically evaluate what it created before you send it. Remove irrelevant wording and anything you wouldn’t normally say.

JP Browne: From a recruitment perspective, it’s a very similar theme. Using AI to draft cover letters and résumés is absolutely fine, but know that you’ll have to explain what’s on your CV to another person. I’ve heard stories of candidates who didn’t check what AI added. In an interview, they were asked about a scenario or technology listed on their CV and had to admit they hadn’t done it. In a highly competitive job market, that doesn’t help. AI can do plenty for your job search, but as Jack said, don’t outsource your understanding—because someone is going to ask you about it. Thank you both; this has been a wonderful discussion. ‘Slop’ may be my new favourite word. Let’s move into the Q&A. We’ve received quite a few questions about guardrails, including this one: what standard guardrails and policies should be in place when starting an AI platform? And I’ll add: is there currently a standard approach?

Jack Jorgensen: From a technical perspective, first create an environment where you can switch between production and a user acceptance testing or test platform. Put controls around prompt injection attacks, and remember that the threat goes beyond what a user enters. Agentic tools may scrape websites and pull assets from across a network, and those sources can contain prompt injections. Restrict and monitor what goes into and out of your network and the AI platform. In sensitive environments involving personally identifiable information, apply PII masking. Logging and monitoring are post-process controls, but you can also pre-process text before it reaches the AI to scan for issues. You can pre-process almost all the data that is about to go to an AI tool. Guardrails should sit at the front end as well as in post-use analysis.

Emily Zhang: Jack has covered data security and privacy. From the people side, focus on responsible use and human oversight. It sounds obvious to say ‘check the work’, but we know that doesn’t always happen. Embed human accountability and clear checkpoints into the process. You can’t simply rely on AI to have done the right thing.

JP Browne: The next question is: how should organisations think about AI’s impact on roles and workforce planning without jumping straight to headcount reduction? From my perspective, I keep coming back to Emily’s point: what are we trying to solve? Headlines about workforce reductions aren’t always entirely about AI; other factors are often at play too.

Emily Zhang: Sometimes people use AI as an excuse: ‘We’re embedding AI, so let’s restructure and call it AI implementation.’ We’ve seen mass exits in the headlines, but also mass recalls. It comes back to the organisation’s accountability to do the detailed process design properly and involve frontline employees sooner rather than later. When strategy and budget cuts come from the top, whether AI is blamed or not, they don’t always support a successful transition into business as usual. Doing that detailed design properly from the outset is essential.

Jack Jorgensen: We had a very similar question last year, when headcount reductions in the US were being attributed to AI. At the time, I suggested AI might be covering for companies trying to reduce their bottom line, and that later proved to be the case. If we remove the headline noise and look at organisational structure, will AI change headcount, roles or the scope of roles? Absolutely. It would be naïve to think otherwise, just as the scope of agricultural roles changed when tractors were invented. But rapidly removing people—and the intellectual property they hold—because a tool has optimised part of a process is short-sighted. Those people can add value elsewhere. If an organisation is always focused on reducing headcount and costs, is it thinking enough about growth? How can it redeploy people who already understand the business to improve and grow the organisation? Using AI as an excuse for headcount reduction is a poor approach.

JP Browne: This next question comes from another angle. Some people are worried about employers monitoring their work. Could recording employees’ screens as they perform daily tasks—with clear context about what they need to achieve—be a useful first step for AI to analyse workflows and suggest improvements? You can see possible benefits, but it may not be great for employee engagement. Jack, what are your thoughts?

Jack Jorgensen: I’m a privacy nut, so this doesn’t sit right with me. Could it be used that way? Yes. Should it? Probably not. Many employee processes are asynchronous: you work on 10% of one thing, switch to 10% of something else, then move again. That multitasking makes screen recordings difficult to piece together. Tools already exist to analyse system logs and workflows, which is much more efficient than processing screen images and usually produces better results. A static log can show what happened down to the second. Screen recording also creates a significant ethical concern. Even where organisations tell employees not to use work devices for personal purposes, there is a risk of capturing non-work activity and personal information, which can create legal problems. There are better ways to do it.

JP Browne: We’ve talked about training and keeping it current. One audience member asks: with AI models being updated so frequently—and models behaving differently for the same workflow or automation—how should organisations manage that change? Emily, that’s your area.

Emily Zhang: Yes and no—it depends on the kind of training. Are we talking about technical training, behavioural training, how people use AI, or learning a particular tool? Technology is evolving every month. People can complete LinkedIn Learning or supplier-provided technical training, but experiential learning—actually using the tool—is often the most valuable and effective way to learn. Of course, you can experiment more freely with ChatGPT than with a financial-modelling tool, so the approach depends on the function and the technology. Technical learning is one component. The other is adoption: the mindset and the safe space people need to use AI effectively rather than simply run with it.

Jack Jorgensen: I’ll add one technical point. Models do behave differently, but new or different doesn’t automatically mean better. If you’re already achieving excellent accuracy, you may not want to upgrade. Manage model changes by running them against a test suite, so you can compare Model A with Model B and understand the difference in performance. We’ve built these for several organisations, and they can produce some eye-opening results.

JP Browne: Following on from that, AI output is improving, but many people still worry about losing human judgement. How should organisations decide where human review remains essential?

Jack Jorgensen: Where you don’t want to end up on the news.

Emily Zhang: If there’s one key takeaway from today, it’s that humans need to remain in the loop. Embed human accountability as a checkpoint.

Jack Jorgensen: It comes down to where you don’t want to end up on the news. If the work involves customer master data, anything going into the field, customer complaints or customer service, I’d want much more oversight—or at least a tool that knows when and how to escalate to a human. We’ve seen cases where AI tools promised things to customers, the organisation was taken to court and the promise was upheld. Ask whether an error could end up in the newspaper or on television. If the answer is yes, put stronger human review and guardrails around it.

Jack Jorgensen: A detailed answer on building a test suite would take more than an hour, but at a high level, you want to run the same prompts through each model and have a consistent way to measure the outputs and their accuracy. Another audience question about fear is interesting. Personally, I don’t see increasing fear around using AI, but I do see heightened anxiety about how AI is being used. There’s an important distinction between the two.

JP Browne: Emily, what are you seeing? Are levels of fear around using AI increasing or decreasing?

Emily Zhang: I think they’re decreasing. There’s less fear and more familiarity with AI. People are coming on the journey more organically, and it’s becoming widely accepted that AI may play some part in producing an artefact—whether it helps someone get started or proofreads their work. In many workplaces, that’s now expected. The biggest call-out is still that the person remains accountable at the end of the process and must check the output.

JP Browne: We’ve reached the end of what has been a very enjoyable webinar. Thank you very much, Jack and Emily.

Jack Jorgensen: Thanks so much.

Emily Zhang: Thank you, JP.

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What AI skills are employers actually looking for in 2026?

What AI skills are employers actually looking for in 2026?

Posted August 27, 2026

AI is appearing on job descriptions everywhere, with SEEK reporting references to AI skills in job advertisements growing by 60.4% year-on-year. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean employers are suddenly looking for armies of prompt engineers.

Talent’s latest AI research found 49% of professionals now use AI every day at work, with 71% using it at least weekly.

With AI use very quickly becoming the norm in the workplace and if everyone can simply open ChatGPT, Copilot or Claude, simply saying you “use AI” doesn’t tell an employer much anymore.

So, what separates someone who can just use an AI tool from someone who can use it well?

We asked two of our recruitment experts what they’re actually seeing from employers and candidates: Joseph Petrovski, Account Director from the Talent Melbourne office, and Elliott Howard, Account Director from Talent Sydney headquarters.

Their answer is more nuanced than “learn more AI”.

AI is everywhere on job descriptions, but hiring demand tells a more complicated story

There’s a gap between how often AI appears in the language of hiring and how often it’s significant enough to be the deciding factor.

Elliott shares:

“AI is listed on almost every job description we receive from clients. However, I don’t believe this is being translated into real-world demand yet.”

Employers increasingly value experience with tools such as Copilot, Cursor and other LLM-based platforms, and some financial services organisations are experimenting with AI agents through proof-of-concept projects. But explicit AI capability is rarely a prerequisite for the cyber, architecture and infrastructure roles he recruits.

Joseph sees something similar:

“Our clients are actively demanding candidate skillsets relevant to their technical or functional ecosystem. This hasn’t changed. Using AI as part of their role is viewed as an extension of their toolkit.”

That lines up with our wider research. While 44% of organisations are upskilling existing employees in response to AI, only 16% say they’re changing the skills they hire for.

In other words, employers aren’t necessarily replacing established technical or functional requirements with a new set of “AI skills”.

They’re increasingly expecting people to apply AI to the skills they already have.

The tool isn’t the skill, it’s what you do with it

Knowing your way around an AI platform can help but knowing why you’re using it is more valuable.

Joseph describes strong AI capability as being able to use the technology “to achieve outcomes faster without obscuring the business value you are tasked to deliver”.

Someone can generate code, analyse information or draft a document faster with AI, but speed means little if the output solves the wrong problem, creates risk or needs to be completely redone.

As AI handles more of the execution, Joseph believes the differentiator shifts further upstream:

“AI has accelerated the execution of milestones. Now, the differentiator becomes the ability to define the right problem, critically assess and validate what AI actually produces to achieve a useful outcome.”

Tools will change, so becoming an expert in one specific platform may not be the smartest long-term career strategy.

Instead, the ability to understand a problem, choose the right approach, interrogate an output and connect the work back to a business outcome travels with you.

As Joseph puts it:

“You are always accountable for the result, not AI.”

If you want to prove you’re good at AI, show what you’ve done with it

There’s also a difference between saying you can use AI and demonstrating it.

Elliott is seeing some candidates go much further than basic prompting by getting hands-on with AI agents and automation.

He points to examples of network engineers building and training AI agents to automate repetitive parts of their work. What stands out isn’t necessarily the platform they’ve chosen, but the curiosity to experiment and the ability to apply the technology to a genuine problem.

That curiosity becomes a much stronger signal than adding a list of AI tools to the bottom of a CV.

If you want to demonstrate AI capability, think about the evidence behind it:

  • What have you automated or improved?
  • What used to take longer?
  • How did you validate the output?
  • What business or customer problem did it solve?
  • Where did you decide AI wasn’t appropriate?
  • What did you learn from building or testing it?

Elliott says explicit AI skills aren’t yet being systematically tested in many of the interviews he sees. Which means candidates who can bring their own concrete examples into the conversation have an opportunity to make their capability tangible and really stand out.

AI may make critical thinking more valuable, not less

There are a lot of discussions about which skills and jobs AI could make obsolete.

Our research points to another side of the equation.

Loss of human judgement was the number one concern respondents had about using AI at work. And 57% identified relying on AI outputs without checking them as one of the highest-risk workplace behaviours.

Both Joseph and Elliott see critical thinking becoming more important as a result.

For Elliott, it becomes particularly relevant in cyber security and financial services, where a confident AI-generated answer can still create very real consequences if it’s wrong.

Joseph says employers are looking for candidates who can deal authentically with conflict and ambiguity, define the right problem and assess whether an AI-generated answer is actually useful.

He says:

“AI has accelerated the execution of milestones. Now, the differentiator becomes the ability to define the right problem, critically assess and validate what AI actually produces to achieve a useful outcome.”

Strong candidates aren’t outsourcing their thinking.

According to Joseph, some of the best users also use AI to challenge their own work by validating outputs, generating alternative problem statements and bringing different perspectives into projects or stakeholder discussions.

That’s a simple and much more sophisticated capability than getting a polished answer from the first prompt.

Don’t become an AI expert, become better at your job with AI

So, what should professionals actually be doing?

Elliott’s advice is to get hands-on. Take advantage of training, explore the tools relevant to your field and experiment with practical applications such as agents and automation. The goal is to understand what AI can do, what information it needs and where it can remove repetitive work.

Joseph approaches it from the other direction:

“I would tell candidates to focus less on trying to become experts in a particular AI tool and focus more on where AI can add value within their field.”

Together, they offer probably the most useful and realistic career advice in the current AI market: Experiment widely but specialise in your domain.

Learn what the technology can do, build tools and processes, test it against real problems, and really understand its limitations, but don’t lose sight of the expertise employers were hiring for in the first place.

For a network engineer, AI doesn’t replace networking expertise.

For a cyber security professional, it doesn’t replace security judgement.

For a software engineer, it doesn’t replace understanding architecture, users or the problem the software needs to solve.

AI can accelerate the work but he value still comes from knowing what good work looks like.

The hiring signal is changing

AI capability is increasingly becoming part of the baseline rather than a standalone speciality.

The question has quickly moved from: “Can this person use AI?”

To: “Can this person use AI to make their expertise more valuable?”

The candidates who stand out won’t necessarily know the most tools or have the longest list of AI certifications.

Instead, they’ll be able to show where AI improved an outcome, explain how they validated the result, recognise where human judgement still mattered and take accountability for what they delivered.

Because as AI becomes easier for everyone to use, the human capability around it becomes more valuable and harder to differentiate.

See how AI is reshaping skills, work and workforce planning across Australia and New Zealand in Talent’s latest AI findings.

Webinar: How is AI really changing the way we work?

Webinar: How is AI really changing the way we work?

Posted August 19, 2026

AI has become part of the working day. The challenge now is ensuring AI is helping organisations achieve the outcomes that matter most.

Join Talent Auckland‘s JP Browne in conversation with experts Emily Zhang, Director of The HumAIn Impact, and Jack Jorgensen, General Manager – Data, AI & Innovation at Avec, as they unpack the findings from our recent survey of 1,505 business leaders and technology professionals across Australia and New Zealand.

Using the findings as a starting point, they’ll explore how organisations are moving beyond AI adoption, why usage alone doesn’t prove value, and what leaders should focus on to make AI part of meaningful business improvement.

Session information

Date: Thursday 17 September
Time: 1:00pm AEST
Format: Online webinar

Register now

What we’ll explore

In this webinar, we’ll discuss:

  • How AI adoption has shifted to implementation over the past 12 months
  • Why organisations should stop measuring AI usage and start measuring the business outcomes that matter
  • What the survey reveals about governance, human judgement and responsible AI adoption
  • Why AI has become a leadership, workforce and operating model challenge
  • Practical actions organisations can take to embed AI in ways that improve speed, quality, customer outcomes and business performance

Whether you’re leading a business, technology function, people strategy or transformation program, you’ll leave with practical insights into how organisations can move from AI use to meaningful business impact.

Register now

Speakers

Jack Jorgensen

General Manager – Data, AI & Innovation, Avec

Jack Jorgensen is a seasoned technology leader with more than a decade of experience developing bespoke, complex software solutions. He brings deep technical expertise across data analytics, software development, system integration, DevOps, cyber security and infrastructure. Actively engaged in the open-source community, Jack is known for his pragmatic approach and clear communication style.

Emily Zhang

Director, The HumAIn Impact

Emily Zhang has spent 15+ years helping organisations navigate one of the hardest parts of transformation: people. From large-scale AI and digital programmes at KPMG, to workforce redesign at CBA, Westpac and APA Group, and building people capability from scratch in high-growth startups, Emily brings deep experience leading transformation and change at every stage and scale.

JP Browne

Practice Manager, Talent Auckland

JP Browne is based in Talent’s Auckland office and brings 20+ years of recruitment experience, specialising in resourcing for large-scale projects and niche skillsets. As host, JP will guide the discussion through the lens of workforce planning, hiring and the skills organisations need as AI becomes part of the working day.

Register now

AI is changing work faster than organisations are changing with it

AI is changing work faster than organisations are changing with it

Posted August 3, 2026

The workplace debate around AI has spent a lot of time focused on one question: will it replace jobs?

While it’s understandable, it’s increasingly not the most useful question to ask. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently acknowledged that fewer entry-level white-collar jobs have been eliminated than he expected and said he no longer anticipates the kind of immediate “jobs apocalypse” some have predicted. In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has similarly argued that the goal should be for AI to support and create good jobs, rather than simply replace them.

Neither view means workforce disruption is off the table. Roles will change, some forms of work will decline, and new capabilities will be required. But they reinforce an important distinction: AI can have a significant effect on employment without replacing entire jobs at once.

Our own research points in a similar direction. Job security was named as the biggest concern by just 7% of respondents, down from 25% in 2025. Meanwhile, upskilling existing employees is the most common workforce response to AI, ahead of redesigning roles or workflows and changing the skills organisations hire for.

The change is already happening inside jobs. Nearly half of the 1,505 business leaders and technology professionals surveyed for our latest research use AI daily, while 71% use it at least a few times a week. What was recently treated as an emerging workplace technology is quickly becoming part of the working day.

The bigger question for employers is therefore not simply whether AI will replace people, but what happens to roles, skills and workforce decisions as people incorporate it into how they research, draft, analyse, plan and solve problems.

Employers are beginning to reconsider what good performance looks like. Hiring managers increasingly need to distinguish between people who can access AI and those who can use it critically, safely and effectively. AI adoption may be accelerating, but many organisations are still catching up with what that means for their workforce.

AI skills are becoming a baseline workplace expectation

For many roles, AI literacy is moving in the same direction as broader digital literacy: from a specialist capability to a basic expectation.

That doesn’t mean ever employee needs to be an AI expert, but it does mean employers are increasingly likely to expect people to understand how AI can support their work, where its limitations sit and when its output needs to be challenged.

As Matthew Munson, Managing Director at Talent Sydney, explains:

“AI skills have shifted from a nice-to-have to a baseline expectation for the vast majority of roles we recruit. We’re actively advising candidates on how to keep building their AI capability and stay abreast of emerging trends.”

But there’s an important distinction to be made between familiarity and capability.

Only 36% of respondents describe themselves as using AI to produce stronger, more useful outputs. A much larger proportion primarily use it for quick answers, research or one-off tasks. This suggests that while AI access is becoming widespread, the pool of genuinely capable users remains much thinner.

For hiring managers, asking whether a candidate “uses AI” will therefore reveal very little. A more valuable conversation explores how they use it, what they use it for, how they validate the result and whether it has improved the quality of their work.

The real change is happening inside jobs

The strongest evidence of AI’s workplace impact is currently found at task level.

Eighty-five percent of respondents say AI has made them more efficient at work, and more than half report meaningful time savings, while another 32% have seen gains across smaller or more specific tasks.

While it matters, efficiency doesn’t automatically mean a role has become simpler, or that the work has disappeared.

More than one in four respondents say AI primarily helps them start tasks rather than finish them, while 18% report spending more time reviewing or correcting AI-generated work.

In practice, this redistributes effort rather than removes it, with less time spent facing a blank page, gathering basic information or producing an initial draft. More time may then be required to assess quality, test assumptions, identify errors and turn a generic output into something useful in context.

The capability employers value will change accordingly.

Employees may be expected to produce work faster, but the strongest performers won’t simply be those who generate the most output. They’ll be the people who know which work should be accelerated, which decisions still require deeper thinking, and how to recognise when an AI-assisted answer is incomplete or wrong.

Human judgement is becoming increasingly more valuable

Loss of human judgement was the most common concern among survey respondents, ahead of data security, over-reliance and job security. At the same time, 57% identified relying on AI outputs without checking them as one of the highest-risk behaviours organisations now face.

This has clear implications for recruitment and assessing candidates.

A candidate can use AI to help prepare an application, respond to a technical question or complete an initial task. Employers therefore need stronger ways to understand the capability behind the output.

That could mean placing greater emphasis on work samples, follow-up questions and role-relevant scenarios. It may involve asking candidates to explain how they reached a conclusion, what they would verify and where they would avoid using AI altogether.

The objective shouldn’t be to catch people using AI. In many roles, its use will be both expected and beneficial, and the objective is to establish whether the person can apply it with sound judgement.

AI can make an average answer appear polished, but it can’t consistently replace the technical depth, commercial context or decision-making that determines whether the answer is useful.

Workforce planning is beginning to respond

Organisations are starting to adjust their workforce strategies, although the shift remains uneven.

Upskilling existing employees is currently the most common response, cited by 44% of respondents. Thirty-seven percent are reducing manual or repetitive work, while 22% are redesigning roles or workflows and the same proportion are hiring AI specialists. However, 26% say AI has not yet changed their workforce planning at all.

The emphasis on upskilling is sensible. The people already inside an organisation understand its customers, systems, processes and operating context, and that knowledge becomes especially valuable when applying AI to real work.

However, training employees to use new tools is only one part of the equation.

Employers also need to consider whether roles have been designed around outdated ways of working. If AI removes part of a task, what should replace it? If it increases output, who is responsible for checking quality? If a capability is now required across a function, should it remain concentrated in a specialist team?

These are workforce design questions, not simply technology questions.

What AI-capable talent looks like

There will not be one universal definition of an AI-capable employee. The required capability will vary by profession, seniority and the risks attached to the work.

However, the most valuable people are likely to combine several qualities:

  • Relevant technical or professional expertise
  • Confidence using AI in context
  • Awareness of data and risk
  • The ability to validate outputs
  • The judgement to know when human intervention matters

As Thomas Mackenzie, Director of Client Services at Scale by Avec, puts it:

“AI is changing what great looks like, and the real advantage sits with the organisations that back people who can combine AI with the technical expertise and commercial judgement to deliver better outcomes, not just faster outputs.”

For employers, this means looking beyond generic claims of AI proficiency. For candidates and contractors, it means being prepared to demonstrate how AI has improved a genuine piece of work, not simply listing a tool on a CV.

The workforce can’t and won’t wait for a definitive answer on how AI will reshape every role, so the organisations best placed to respond will be those that treat AI capability as a workforce issue over just a technology one. That means defining what effective use looks like, redesigning work where necessary and backing people who can combine AI with the expertise, context and judgement it cannot provide on its own.

Our latest research reveals how more than 1,500 business leaders and technology professionals across Australia and New Zealand are navigating that shift. From everyday adoption and productivity gains to skills, trust and the future workforce, access the full report to see what employers should be preparing for next.

Why cyber risk now belongs in the boardroom

Why cyber risk now belongs in the boardroom

Posted July 20, 2026

Cybersecurity is often discussed through the language of tools, controls and technical threats. But for boards and executive leaders, the more important questions are about operational resilience, business continuity and how much risk is accumulating beneath the surface.

We recently welcomed executive leaders from across our network to the Talent Sydney office for a session with cyber security expert Dr Vladas Leonas, a career technology leader who has served as CIO eight times and is the author of Cumulative Effect: Cyber Security Guide for Directors and CEOs.

Drawing on decades of technology leadership, Dr Leonas explored why modern organisations are becoming more exposed as their reliance on technology grows, and why cyber security needs to be understood and governed as a business risk.

As he made clear at the outset:

“It’s not about the tools. It’s not about shiny dashboards.”

Here are five key takeaways from the session.

Cyber risk is cumulative

Major incidents can look sudden, but the conditions that make them possible often develop over years.

Technology estates expand, new vendors and applications are introduced, integrations multiply, exceptions become permanent, and legacy systems remain because replacing them feels too difficult or expensive.

Each decision may appear reasonable in isolation, but together they create what Dr Leonas described as a cumulative effect: a sequence of changes over time that eventually produces an outcome nobody expected.

He emphasises the need to reframe the role of executive leadership. Cyber risk can’t be managed only at the point of attack or audit. Leaders need visibility into how strategic, procurement and delivery decisions are changing the organisation’s exposure over time.

Digital dependency is operational risk

Few organisations can operate for long without their core technology. That means even a non-malicious technology failure can create consequences that resemble a cyber incident.

The session used the July 2024 CrowdStrike outage as a stark example. A faulty software update affected approximately 8.5 million Windows devices and disrupted airlines, banks, healthcare providers, retailers, media companies and payment systems around the world.

“It wasn’t a cybersecurity incident, but just a bad update,” Dr Leonas said. Yet the economic and operational impact ran into billions of dollars.

The leadership lesson is that resilience planning cannot focus only on cyberattacks. Boards should also understand where the business is highly dependent on particular systems, platforms, vendors and integrations, and what happens when one of them fails.

As Dr Leonas posed the question:

“Can you name a business that is not dependent on technology today? Probably not.”

Complexity creates its own risk

One of the strongest messages from the session was that complexity is not simply an IT management challenge. It’s a material source of cyber risk.

In many organisations, knowledge of the technology environment is fragmented. Different teams understand different systems, but nobody has a complete end-to-end view. That makes it harder to predict the consequences of change, patch vulnerabilities safely, recover from disruption and identify where exposure is building.

The shift from large monolithic systems to microservices has enabled faster and more flexible delivery, but it’s also driven rapid growth in application programming interfaces, or APIs. Every API adds another connection that must be secured, monitored and governed.

As Dr Leonas put it:

“Complexity is your enemy. Whatever you can do to simplify the IT ecosystem is very, very important.”

For boards, simplification should be treated as a strategic objective rather than a technical clean-up exercise. Dr Leonas suggested that year-on-year reduction in unnecessary complexity could become a meaningful measure of progress.

Speed without assurance creates hidden exposure

Speed creates commercial value, but delivery pressure can also compress the time available for security design, threat modelling, independent review, testing and remediation.

Dr Leonas challenged leaders to reconsider the familiar delivery constraint of fast, cheap and good. In cyber security, prioritising speed and cost without equivalent attention to assurance can result in vulnerabilities being shipped incrementally, release after release.

The issue is not that organisations should stop using agile delivery but that governance and incentives must ensure security isn’t repeatedly deferred to a later sprint, a penetration test or a future remediation program.

This requires leadership discipline. Teams need the mandate, capability and time to build security into delivery, and not simply assess it after the fact.

Compliance is a baseline, not proof of resilience

Certifications, frameworks and regulatory obligations all play an important role. But the session repeatedly returned to one warning: compliance should not be mistaken for security.

Dr Leonas shared:

“Compliance is a very good step—a foundational step—but a lot of people feel that compliance is equal to security. It is not.”

A certification only provides assurance within its defined scope and at a particular point in time. It may not cover the systems, entry points or dependencies presenting the organisation’s greatest exposure. History also provides numerous examples of compliant and certified organisations suffering major breaches.

Dr Leonas argued that organisations need to move from periodic, point-in-time assurance towards continuous assurance. Technology environments change too quickly for a six-monthly audit to provide a complete view of current risk.

Boards need to govern the trade-offs

Cyber security ultimately comes down to decisions that are often made under pressure, with incomplete information and competing priorities.

Leaders are constantly balancing operational continuity, customer trust, regulatory expectations and commercial outcomes, and there’s rarely a perfect or risk-free option. Instead, the goal is to make deliberate choices that align with the organisation’s risk appetite and long-term strategy.

This requires a shift in mindset where cyber risk is treated in the same way as financial or investment risk: something to be weighed, prioritised and governed, not simply delegated or deferred.

Without clear guardrails, technology environments will continue to expand, and with them, the organisation’s exposure. Boards play a critical role in setting those boundaries to ensure that growth, speed and innovation are matched with appropriate levels of control and assurance.

For boards and executive teams, the key questions are:

  • Where are our most critical technology dependencies?
  • Is our environment becoming simpler or more complex?
  • Is assurance keeping pace with the speed of delivery?
  • Does our compliance status reflect genuine resilience?

Cyber security has entered the boardroom because it now affects whether organisations can continue operating, protect trust and recover when something goes wrong. The organisations best positioned to respond will be those that treat it not as a technical problem to delegate, but as a business risk to understand, challenge and govern.

Talk to Talent about building the cyber, technology and transformation capability needed to strengthen resilience and manage risk.

Emma Chow on authenticity, motherhood and impostor syndrome

Emma Chow on authenticity, motherhood and impostor syndrome

Posted June 16, 2026

For over 15 years, Emma Chow has been part of Australia’s morning soundtrack. She’s interviewed everyone from Jason Derulo to DJ Khaled, survived 3:50am alarms, and navigated the highs and heartbreaks that come with live radio. But, as we find out in our latest podcast episode, there’s a whole lot more to her than the voice her many listeners wake up to, but few truly know.

She laughs that her career in radio started almost by accident. “I was working at The Music Network,” she recalls. “I interviewed Charlie Fox — who was a content director at the time — and he said, ‘You’re really bubbly. Have you ever thought about getting into radio?’ I literally went, ‘LOL. Hilarious. No.’”

A few weeks later, she was on-air at Sydney’s The Edge 96.1. “I owe so much of my career success to that little station that could,” she says. “They warned me that if I went into radio, I’d never leave. And here I am, almost fifteen years later.”

The performance and the person

Radio might seem effortless from the outside, but Emma is quick to dismantle the illusion that it’s just a couple of voices chatting between songs. “It’s three hours of performing,” she says. “Even though I’m myself on air, I’m also ‘on’. You don’t really have time to stop down and have the kind of conversations we’re having now.”

Those conversations about insecurity, self-doubt, therapy, and motherhood are exactly what she’s learned to make space for, both in her life and on air. “In traditional radio, it was a lot of smoke and mirrors. You couldn’t talk too much about being married or pregnant. You were meant to be this polished, always-on version of yourself.”

Now, co-hosting with Jimmy and Nath, she says the culture is completely different. “We’re having real conversations about mental health, parenthood, relationships, and it’s so much more human. Listeners can smell fake. The only way to connect is to be yourself.”

On being ‘enough’

When the microphone switches off, Emma is a mum to two boys — Valentino, seven, and Raphael, two — and wife to Enzo. She laughs about the chaos of family life but admits it’s also her anchor.

After both pregnancies, Emma returned to work quickly nine weeks after her first son, six after her second. “It was a very quick turnaround,” she says. “I think that’s where the impostor syndrome crept in. I was trying to prove I could do it all.”

“I’m just as insecure and second-guessing as every other woman,” she says. “You try so hard and you doubt yourself at every step. There’s always that little devil on your shoulder saying, ‘Try harder, prove yourself.’”

“We need to talk to ourselves like we talk to our friends,” she says. “If your best friend came to you saying, ‘I’m overwhelmed, I’m not enough,’ you’d say, ‘You’ve got this.’ But we never do that for ourselves.”

Therapy, transitions, and letting go

Emma speaks openly about therapy. “My therapist, Monica — shout out, love Monica — said we’re focusing on transitions,” she laughs. “So, when I leave work, I literally sit in my car and shake. I take deep breaths, maybe meditate for a minute. It sounds weird, but it works.”

For someone used to the urgency of live radio where “every second counts”, that decompression is essential. “Radio has made me a really impatient person,” she admits. “You lose a second, it’s gone. I can’t always switch that off when I get home. So I’m learning to be more fluid, more relaxed. To find joy in the five-minute moments.”

That self-awareness, she says, is still a work in progress. “I can be prone to anxiety. But I’m learning to let go, to just enjoy. Because quality time is the most important thing to me, and sometimes I’m the one stopping myself from having it.”

Animated dreams and unexpected passions

For someone who’s spent her life amplifying others’ stories, Emma lights up when talking about creativity outside of radio. “We were in a PR meeting, and they asked what we’d love to do that we haven’t done yet. I said I’d love to be an animated character,” she laughs. “Everyone was like, ‘What?’ But it’s true, I’d love to voice a sassy teenage or cool young mum character.”

It’s a dream she traces back to Happy Feet and, more recently, watching Bluey with her kids. “Bluey really kicked it into gear. It’s clever, funny, and so Aussie. I love that it has jokes for the parents, too.”

She’s also a self-confessed “nerd” who journals daily as a ritual that started in therapy. “At the end of every day, I write three things I’m grateful for and three things I’m proud of myself for. It sounds lame, but it really grounds you.”

Motherhood as a mirror

For Emma, becoming a parent changed her routine, how she sees the world, and how she sees herself.

“When I was pregnant with my first, I was nervous to tell anyone,” she says. “I thought it would derail my career. But Charlie Fox said, ‘This is a great thing for your career.’ And he was right.”

She also credits radio icon Amanda Keller with helping her reframe it. “She told me, ‘This is the best job to have a baby in, it will make you a better broadcaster.’ And I get it now. Motherhood has softened me. It’s made me more empathetic, less judgemental.”

Where once she might have rushed to conclusions about callers or colleagues, she now pauses. “I don’t judge people by one stupid decision. I’m more open-minded. I think that’s because I want people to treat my kids like that — with compassion.”

That shift, she says, has made her both softer and stronger. “I’ve learned to say no. I’ve learned that protecting my energy isn’t selfish but survival.”

Perfectionism, pressure, and perspective

Emma admits she’s her own toughest critic. “Our executive producer told me recently, ‘I’ve never met anyone harder on themselves than you are,’” she says. “I cried when she said that. But it stuck with me.”

She laughs about journalling through what she calls her “48-hour break spiral.” “I did a break on air that didn’t come off the way I wanted it to. No one else noticed — not the listeners, not my co-hosts — but I beat myself up about it for two days. I wrote two pages in my journal about it,” she says. “If it was my friend, I’d say, ‘Don’t worry, it was great.’ But when it’s me, I can’t let it go.”

That self-critical streak comes with a silver lining: relentless self-awareness. “I think it’s what makes me good at my job,” she says. “But it’s also exhausting. I’m learning to be proud of myself for doing enough and not for doing everything perfectly.”

The real work behind the fun

Ask anyone outside the industry what a radio host does, and they’ll picture celebrity interviews, music, and laughs. Emma laughs at that too, because it’s only half the truth.

“What you hear on air is the fun part,” she says. “But there are so many meetings — pre-show, post-show, Sunday meetings for Monday prep. There are campaigns, clients, sales, KPIs. It’s a business.”

The behind-the-scenes grind doesn’t dull her love for it though. “That three hours of live radio — the synergy, the connection — that’s magic. That’s why I do it.”

Connecting through authenticity

Ultimately, connection is what keeps Emma going in both her work and her life. “Radio is a live communication medium,” she says. “The measure of success is how you connect with the people listening. And the only way to connect is by being yourself.”

She’s seen how the industry has evolved. “There used to be a way of doing radio that was all about image. But now, audiences want real. Social media and podcasting have changed everything. People want to feel seen.”

That’s what drives her. “If I show the bare bones of who I am — when work is hard, when parenting is hard, when I’m riddled with anxiety — people see themselves in that. We’re all humans trying to figure it out.”

Not just a radio host

As someone who’s spent her career giving voice to others, it’s only now through therapy, motherhood, and self-reflection that Emma has found her own.

She’s not just the woman behind the mic or the co-host cracking jokes at dawn. She’s a mum who journals between school runs, a professional still learning to silence her inner critic, and a creative dreaming of voicing a cartoon character one day.

“I want my kids to be proud of who their mum was,” she says simply. “Whether that’s on radio or just being a good human.”

And that’s the thing about Emma Chow, she’s not just a radio host. She’s a reminder that authenticity isn’t the opposite of success; it’s the reason for it.

Want to hear more of Emma’s story? Watch the full podcast episode on our YouTube channel.

FY27 hiring market predictions: Where Australia’s talent demand is heading next

FY27 hiring market predictions: Where Australia’s talent demand is heading next

Posted June 10, 2026

If FY26 was defined by caution, FY27 will be defined by a different challenge: finding the skills needed to deliver growth, transformation and resilience without blowing the budget.

Across Australia, organisations are still managing costs carefully. Yet cyber threats are escalating, AI adoption is accelerating, digital transformation programs continue to advance, demand across defence and critical infrastructure remains strong, and governments are under increasing pressure to improve service delivery.

That puts commercially minded specialists in the strongest position, particularly those working across cyber security, governance, risk, AI adoption, cloud, data, digital transformation, engineering, financial services, essential services, defence, resources, energy and government delivery.

As Joelle Beaton, Practice Lead at Talent Melbourne, puts it:

“FY27 is likely to represent a selective recovery rather than a broad-based hiring boom, with the strongest demand being for candidates who can combine technical capability with commercial impact.”

Cost pressure will remain, but capability gaps are hard to ignore

Cost versus capability will be the defining workforce challenge of FY27.

Government agencies and large enterprises are being asked to do more with less while simultaneously delivering transformation programs, strengthening cyber resilience, modernising legacy systems and preparing for wider AI adoption.

Steve Tompkins, Head of Government at Talent Sydney, expects contractor spend and procurement decisions to remain under pressure at the start of the next financial year but as he puts it:

“At some point, the conversation has to move from cost to value. Until then, we expect to see more outcome-based engagements as managers seek the security of delivery rather than trying to deliver with understaffed or under-skilled in-house teams.”

This shift towards outcome-based engagement is likely to be one of the more important hiring trends of FY27. Where permanent headcount is constrained, organisations will still need access to the skills required to deliver critical programs, creating stronger demand for contractors, consultants and project-based delivery teams, particularly in specialist areas where internal capability is limited.

Steve also notes that without an appetite to review permanent salary bandings in some areas of government, agencies may struggle to secure the expertise they need through traditional permanent hiring pathways. The result is a market where the demand exists, but the engagement model may change.

Election uncertainty will influence government hiring decisions

In New South Wales, the March 2027 state election will add another layer of complexity to government hiring and workforce planning, particularly around how it will influence agencies to think about contingent labour, procurement and delivery models.

“It will be interesting to watch how policies evolve,” says Steve. “Including the government’s current view of contingent labour hire.”

For hiring teams, this means scrutiny around contractor spend may continue early in the new financial year, but as delivery pressure increases, agencies may need to reassess how they access specialist talent, particularly for cyber, AI, governance, cloud transition and digital service delivery.

Joseph Petrovski, Account Director at Talent Melbourne, expects similar pressure shaping the Victorian market:

“Government demand won’t disappear in FY27, but the way that talent is engaged is likely to change. With headcount pressure increasing, we expect to see more reliance on contractors, consultants and project-based delivery models.”

Cyber security, governance and risk will be priority hiring areas

Cyber security is expected to remain one of the strongest areas of demand in FY27.

In NSW, Steve points to the NSW Cyber Security Strategy and related policy direction as a major driver of future hiring. The NSW Government has already mandated targeted cyber uplift for agencies, including compliance against key requirements in the NSW Cyber Security Policy and greater visibility over key risks and critical assets.

This focus is expected to increase demand for:

  • Cyber architects
  • Cyber security analysts
  • Cloud security engineers
  • IAM specialists
  • Critical infrastructure security experts

And as Steve notes:

“Because there is a shortage in this space, and limited appetite to source globally, we expect to see more investment in home-grown and junior cyber talent to build capability onshore.”

For employers, the cyber skills shortage won’t be solved through senior hiring alone and deliberately investing in junior pathways, training, internal mobility and long-term capability building is becoming critical for organisations.

For candidates, cyber will remain one of the strongest areas of opportunity, particularly for professionals who can pair technical knowledge with governance, risk, assurance and stakeholder communication.

Joseph is seeing a similar pattern in Victoria, where school compliance changes and heightened security across the education sector are expected to drive demand for cyber security, governance, risk and compliance capability.

Across government, education, financial services, critical infrastructure and essential services, cyber will remain closely linked to trust, resilience and regulatory confidence.

Defence will continue to drive specialist demand in Adelaide

In South Australia, defence is expected to remain one of the clearest drivers of economic and employment growth through FY27.

Vimal Venugopal, Senior Account Executive at Talent Adelaide, explains:

“Demand for engineering and technical talent remains high. And employers are prioritising quality and capability, with greater emphasis on candidates whose skills and experience closely match the role requirements.”

As a result, the Adelaide market is becoming more selective, with employers looking for more specialised experience, such as: Project Managers with infrastructure backgrounds, Automation Testers who have built automation frameworks from scratch, and Business Analysts with Microsoft 365 experience.

For candidates, this means general experience may no longer be enough as employers increasingly look for evidence of direct, relevant delivery experience and the ability to add value quickly.

Vimal is also seeing AI capability become more important outside traditional technology teams, reinforcing one of the bigger FY27 hiring themes nationally: AI literacy becoming a broader workforce capability.

WA demand is being driven by resources, energy and critical infrastructure

In Western Australia, mining, resources, energy, utilities and critical infrastructure continue to shape hiring demand.

Edwin Foo, Principal Account Manager at Talent Perth, says:

“Traditional operations in WA, particularly iron ore and gold, are still fuelling hiring, while expansion into wind, solar and grid integration is increasing the need for critical infrastructure capability.”

Demand remains strong across technology and engineering, particularly for:

  • Automation Engineers across IT/OT
  • Data Science and AI Platform Engineers
  • Full-Stack Software Engineers
  • AWS and Azure Cloud Architects
  • Cyber Security Specialists

Workforce planning is also maturing as major infrastructure and energy transition programs continue. Edwin explains:

“Large-scale infrastructure and energy transition projects are shifting workforce planning from reactive, short-term recruitment cycles into more strategic, long-term models. With major mining, resources and state government project investments running in parallel, organisations are having to rethink how they plan future workforces.”

Unlike some markets where remote capability is a stronger lever, Perth is seeing clear demand for local talent.

Hybrid office mandates combined with the integrated nature of IT/OT across mining, resources and energy mean employers are prioritising candidates who can physically work and collaborate in Perth CBD offices and local operations centres.

AI demand will become more practical and governance-led

FY27 is likely to be the year AI hiring becomes less theoretical.

In financial services, Elliott Howard, Account Director at Talent Sydney, shares:

“A key trend will be the continued rise of Agentic AI as large enterprises move from proofs of concept to deploying autonomous systems that reduce manual effort and give employees more time to focus on critical thinking and problem solving.”

This will change role requirements as AI literacy becomes an essential skill, not just a technical specialisation.

However, in government, Steve expects AI demand to take a slightly different shape:

“Government wants to implement AI at scale, but the demand we expect to see is less about experimental AI engineering and more about practical adoption, governance and assurance.”

For employers, this means AI capability can no longer sit only with technical teams but must be embedded across governance, product, delivery, risk, data and operational teams.

For candidates, the opportunity lies in AI literacy, responsible AI understanding and the ability to apply AI to real workflows that will become increasingly valuable.

Cloud transition and shared platforms will continue to create demand

Cloud transformation is expected to remain a major driver of hiring in the next financial year, particularly across government and enterprise environments managing legacy infrastructure.

As Steve puts it:

“Cloud transitions will continue across NSW Government, particularly where agencies are looking to reduce duplication and move towards shared platforms. The opportunity isn’t solely about migrating infrastructure but improving service delivery, strengthening security, improving access to data and creating more efficient ways of working.”

This is expected to support demand for:

  • Azure specialists
  • AWS professionals
  • Enterprise architects
  • Integration architects

“Cloud is no longer just an infrastructure program,” says Steve. “The people who will be most valuable are those who understand technical implementation alongside governance, interoperability, service outcomes and how to reduce duplication across complex environments.”

Business Analysts will remain critical to digital service delivery

While emerging technologies often dominate the market conversation, Steve expects Business Analysts to remain in steady demand through FY27 simply because: digital strategy still needs translation.

Government agencies are under pressure to improve service delivery and citizen experience, and that requires people who can turn policy into products, requirements into delivery plans and stakeholder needs into practical digital services.

This is a reminder that the strongest transformation teams will need BAs, product specialists, delivery leads, change professionals and architects who can connect strategy to execution.

Financial services hiring will focus on risk, data and cyber

In Sydney’s financial services market, Elliott expects hiring to concentrate around risk, data and cyber security as the sector continues to face pressure from regulatory obligations, security threats, customer expectations and productivity demands. And as AI adoption increases, these priorities will become even more connected.

Organisations will need professionals who can unlock greater value from data, govern emerging technologies responsibly, strengthen cyber resilience and improve operational efficiency.

This is expected to support demand for:

  • Risk professionals
  • Data specialists
  • Cyber security experts
  • Governance professionals
  • AI-literate business leaders
  • Transformation specialists who understand regulated environments

For candidates, commercial judgement will matter as employers look for people who can do more than perform a technical function. They’ll want talent that understands risk, business value and the operating realities of financial services.

Software engineering demand is being reshaped by AI

AI is both creating and changing existing demand in the software engineering space.

Joseph explains:

“AI-augmented coding is changing the shape of software engineering demand. We’re seeing less emphasis on traditional front-end development and more demand for people who understand LLMs, AI-enabled productivity and how to apply these tools effectively.”

The expectations of a software engineer are shifting, and employers are likely to value engineers who can use AI tools to improve productivity, solve more complex problems, understand system architecture and apply strong judgement to AI-generated code.

For developers, FY27 will be a market that rewards adaptability. Narrow execution-based skill sets may become more vulnerable, while engineers who combine fundamentals with AI fluency, architecture thinking, and business understanding will be better placed.

Melbourne is likely to see selective recovery

In Melbourne, Joelle expects FY27 to bring renewed momentum across IT and technology-aligned hiring:

“As the dust settles on a tumultuous FY26, we are likely to see a renewed level of momentum in the Melbourne and broader Australian hiring market through FY27, although not at the intensity seen during the post-pandemic peak.”

Population growth, continued enterprise and government investment, and demand across essential services are expected to support a gradual improvement in confidence.

Strongest demand will likely sit across:

  • AI adoption
  • Cyber security uplift
  • Cloud and data transformation
  • Digital modernisation
  • Essential services

Aligning with Joseph’s predictions that energy and critical infrastructure will continue to generate demand, particularly as organisations invest in resilience, modernisation and long-term delivery capability.

For high-impact technology roles connected to transformation, cyber, data and essential services, competition is expected to remain strong in the Melbourne market.

What FY27 means for employers

Workforce planning needs to be sharper, and organisations need to be clear about the capabilities they need, the value those capabilities create and the best way to access them.

This means permanent hiring in some areas, contract or consulting engagement in others, and more deliberate investment in early-career or home-grown talent where shortages are structural.

What FY27 means for candidates

For jobseekers, FY27 will reward relevance. Employers are increasingly looking for people who can demonstrate how their skills contribute to business outcomes, whether through improving productivity, managing risk, supporting transformation or delivering better services.

The strongest candidates will be those who combine technical capability with adaptability, commercial awareness and direct experience in their field. As AI continues to reshape the workplace, professionals who embrace new tools and can apply them effectively alongside their core expertise will be best positioned to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

The bottom line

FY27 will be a selective and capability-led market.

Cost scrutiny and procurement pressure will remain, and permanent headcount will still be carefully managed in some sectors, but the need for specialist talent is not going away.

The employers that succeed will be those that move from short-term cost control to long-term capability planning, and the candidates who stand out will be those who can show not only what they know, but how that knowledge creates value.

As Steve puts it, “The conversation has to move from cost to value.”

That may be the defining workforce shift of FY27.

Supporting veterans into meaningful careers

Supporting veterans into meaningful careers

Posted May 12, 2026

We recognise the valuable skills, experience and perspective that veterans, reservists and partners of serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members bring to the workforce. From leadership and adaptability to problem-solving, resilience and teamwork, the capabilities developed through service are highly relevant across tech, transformation and beyond.

As a global recruitment specialist, Talent is committed to helping veterans and defence partners explore meaningful civilian career pathways, connect with the right opportunities, and feel supported throughout the recruitment process.

Our commitment

Talent is a proud supporter of veterans’ employment and the Australian Government’s Veteran Employment Commitment.

We’re committed to helping veterans, reservists and partners of serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members access meaningful civilian career opportunities and feel supported throughout the recruitment process.

Through practical career guidance, dedicated support and strong employer partnerships, we help translate service experience into career pathways where their skills and experience are recognised.

How we support veterans and defence partners

Moving from service into civilian employment can mean navigating new job titles, new hiring processes and new ways of describing experience, and we’re here to make that transition clearer.

We can support with:

  • Career conversations to understand your experience, goals and transferable skills
  • Guidance on how to position military experience for civilian employers
  • Access to contract, permanent and project-based opportunities
  • Connections across tech, transformation, project delivery, cyber, business operations and adjacent fields
  • Support throughout the recruitment process
  • A dedicated contact for veterans, reservists and defence partners

Ready to explore what’s next?

If you’re a veteran, reservist, transitioning ADF member or defence partner looking for career support or explore current opportunities, you can contact our dedicated veteran employment lead.

Majella Sanders
Account Director, Talent Sydney
Email: majella.sanders@talentinternational.com
Phone: +61 418 355 920

Let’s help you find where your skills and experience can take you next. Explore open job opportunities.

Leading the Way: In conversation with Victor Pineiro

Leading the Way: In conversation with Victor Pineiro

Posted May 1, 2026

The Talent Sydney office recently hosted another instalment of our Leading the Way event series, welcoming guests for a fireside chat with endurance swimmer and business leader Victor Pineiro, facilitated by Account Executive, Sophia Parrelli. 

Victor shared the story behind his record-setting open water swims, including his successful crossing from the Isle of Man to Northern Ireland, a route that had never previously been completed solo without a wetsuit. But beyond the scale of the challenge itself, the conversation focused on what it takes to perform under pressure: resilience, preparation, adaptability and the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people. 

Drawing on both his professional background and his experiences in extreme endurance sport, Victor spoke about pushing beyond comfort zones, managing setbacks when plans change, and building the mental strength to keep moving forward when the path ahead feels uncertain. 

The session offered a compelling reminder that leadership is not only about ambition, but about discipline, perspective and the ability to stay focused when conditions are far from ideal. 

Leading the Way is our event series designed to bring together inspiring speakers, fresh perspectives and conversations that challenge how we think about leadership, performance and growth. 

AI, risk and restructures: What’s really driving financial services hiring?

AI, risk and restructures: What’s really driving financial services hiring?

Posted April 20, 2026

If you only followed the headlines, you’d think the financial services sector is being driven by large-scale AI transformation. It’s not.

Across Australia, banks, insurers and fintechs are navigating a mix of regulatory scrutiny, cost-cutting, evolving cyber threats, fragmented transformation programs, and targeted investment in areas like data, cyber and platform modernisation. While AI is part of the conversation, it has yet to materially reshape organisations at scale.

Instead, hiring is being influenced by a series of overlapping shifts:

  • Heightened regulatory scrutiny and risk accountability
  • Ongoing restructuring to fund transformation and reduce cost bases
  • Smaller teams expected to deliver broader, more technical outcomes
  • AI embedding into workflows rather than driving standalone transformation

We sat down with our in-house Financial Services specialists to unpack what they’re seeing across risk, cyber, infrastructure, software and AI and how it’s shaping hiring.

Regulation is driving more work

The most consistent driver across the market right now is regulation.

According to Chris Huggett, Practice Director – Financial Services at Talent Sydney:

“There’s a lot more pre-emptive work happening right now around risk and governance, but not all of it is directly driven by AI. Previously, it was reactive, particularly post-Royal Commission. Now organisations are trying to get ahead of issues before they happen.”

That shift is being reinforced by public scrutiny.

Ongoing issues with the ASX have triggered intense regulatory pressure around operational resilience and governance standards.

“That level of scrutiny inevitably drives transformation, particularly around resilience and risk culture,” says Elliott Howard, Account Director.

At the same time, AI-enabled fraud is becoming more sophisticated and scalable from deep fakes and voice cloning to synthetic identities and large-scale loan scams.

What this means for hiring: Demand is increasing for governance, resilience and risk capability, embedded within broader programs rather than standalone initiatives.

AI is being contained, not scaled

AI is being adopted in controlled, low-risk environments.

“We’re seeing smaller-scale initiatives in niche pockets with specific use cases,” says James Bertollo, Account Manager. “They’re what you’d consider minor implementations like customer service, internal automation, agent-based workflows, but nothing like enterprise-wide transformation.”

The constraint is risk.

“For banks, using AI on private customer data is still a major concern,” James adds. “There’s a real fear of making a mistake that is both costly and leads to regulatory consequences.”

The caution is being reinforced by a combination of factors:

  • Increasing regulatory scrutiny around data handling and decision-making
  • The potential for AI-driven errors at scale
  • A lack of clear, consistent frameworks for AI governance

As a result, organisations are taking a segmented approach. Rather than pursing a single, enterprise-wide AI program, most are:

  • Deploying AI within specific business units
  • Ringfencing higher-risk data environments
  • Building internal guardrails as they go

“I don’t think you’ll see one singular transformation program around AI,” says Chris. “It will sit within different areas of the business, with different levels of control depending on the risk.”

What this means for hiring: Steady but fragmented demand for AI capability, creating pockets of hiring rather than large-scale workforce shifts.

AI’s immediate impact is at the operational level

While AI isn’t driving enterprise transformation, it is already reshaping day-to-day execution.

“In cyber, what used to take one or two days can now be done in 30 minutes using AI agents,” says Elliott.

This pattern is consistent across functions: faster analysis, reduced manual effort and compressed delivery timelines. And it’s already changing expectations of output, speed and team structure.

What this means for hiring: Expectations of output are increasing and teams are being designed around speed and efficiency, raising the bar for individual capability.

Hiring demand is concentrating at the execution layer

The clearest signal of change has been an increasing demand of talent at the execution layer.

According to James:

“Over the past two years, we’ve seen very senior AI roles put in place to set strategy and frameworks and kick off initiatives. In a lot of cases, those roles have been brought in externally, while the middle layer—product owners, project managers—has largely stayed the same and been upskilled.

Where we’re seeing the highest demand, and the most volume, is at the doing level. These are the engineers and practitioners who are actually building and implementing AI. That’s consistent across banking, financial services and insurance. Those are the roles we’re seeing come through most frequently.”

At the same time, AI capability has become a baseline expectation.

“Every role now has ‘AI’ as either a nice-to-have or a must-have,” says Chris.

Roles are being redefined:

  • Engineers are expected to work end-to-end
  • Technical roles require stronger business engagement
  • Pure specialisation is declining

“You won’t ever hire a pure Python developer anymore,” says James. “You need someone who can design, build, implement and engage with stakeholders. With specialisations like coding becoming less central, the core defining skill required of an end-to-end software engineer is now what our clients call a ‘solution mindset’.”

What this means for hiring: Highest demand for hands-on, end-to-end practitioners who can deliver outcomes not just define them.

Cost pressure is reshaping team structures

With budgets tightening, teams are becoming leaner.

Over the past 12–18 months, major financial institutions have reduced headcount significantly.

Elliott explains:

“Last year, we saw one of the biggest years in redundancies and cost-cutting across the banks, probably since the GFC. Whether that’s translating into continued investment in tech transformation, it’s more likely a cost-cutting exercise and what’s now widely described as ‘AI washing’.”

As a result, organisations are being forced to do more with fewer people, emulating the operating models and ways of working of technology companies.

“We’re seeing smaller teams and higher expectations,” says Chris. “People are being asked to cover multiple functions.”

This means combining roles that were previously separate, such as:

  • Project Manager / Product Owner = Project Manager + Business Analyst + Tester
  • Engineer = Engineer + Tester + UI Designer + sometimes Business Analyst
  • Scrum Master = Project Manager + Business Analyst

But this introduces delivery risk.

“If you’re asking someone to test their own work, it creates risk and ultimately sets the program up for failure,” Chris explains. “But ultimately, it comes down to cost constraints.”

What this means for hiring: There’s greater demand for multi-skilled individuals holding higher accountability, but also increased risk where separation of duties is lost.

Some roles are already in decline

Not all roles are being affected equally. Some are already in clear decline.

Project Managers, Business Analysts, Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and layers of middle management.

“It’s a very challenging time to be a Project Manager in the market right now,” says Elliott. “We’re seeing hundreds of applicants for a single role. We recently had a general Project Manager role receive 200–300 applications within 48 hours, and many of those candidates have been looking for work for months.”

This reflects a shift away from large, program-based transformation towards smaller, incremental initiatives delivered within existing product and engineering teams.

“Agile isn’t a standalone role anymore,” says Chris. “It’s just part of the job.”

What this means for hiring: Roles focused on coordination, governance and process are being absorbed into more technically capable, end-to-end positions.

The offshore delivery model is coming under pressure

AI is also beginning to challenge traditional offshore delivery models.

Historically, offshore teams have been used to handle repetitive developer work and high volume support tasks. The same areas where AI is now most effective.

“There are conversations happening about whether AI reduces the need for offshore models,” says Chris. “Because that type of work is increasingly automatable.”

While this shift is not fully realised at this stage, it is becoming a recurring theme in how organisations are thinking about future operating models.

If this direction continues, the implications are significant:

  • Reduced reliance on offshore execution capacity
  • Greater emphasis on onshore, higher-value roles
  • A shift from production-based work to orchestration and oversight

It has the potential to reshape how work is distributed across global teams.

Hiring strategies are diverging across subsectors

Not all financial services subsectors are responding to these pressures in the same way.

Different subsectors are taking materially different approaches to growth, cost and risk, and this is flowing through into how they hire.

In banking, the focus remains on consolidation, cost control and internal efficiency.

“Banks are focused on consolidating,” Chris shares. “It’s more about optimising what they already have.”

This means tighter headcount control, more selective hiring and a focus on roles that directly support priority initiatives.

In contrast, super funds are still actively pursuing growth through M&A and market expansion.

“We’re seeing more movement in the super space,” Chris notes. “There are still opportunities for growth and acquisition.”

This is creating demand in areas tied to integration, transformation and scaling capability.

Meanwhile, fintechs are operating with a different set of constraints. After a period of rapid expansion post-COVID, the focus has shifted towards sustainability.

“Fintechs are being much more measured now,” says Elliott. “It’s less about expansion and more about maintaining cost base and growing sustainably.”

As a result, fintech hiring is more cautious, with fewer speculative hires, greater emphasis on immediate value and tighter alignment to commercial outcomes.

Across all three, the underlying pattern is consistent: Hiring has become more targeted, more deliberate and more closely tied to business priorities.

Hiring is becoming more disciplined

Despite shifts across technology, regulation and operating models, the core drivers of hiring in financial services remain consistent.

“Transformation initiatives, regulatory pressure and remediation following failure. Those core reasons for hiring aren’t going away any time soon,” says James. “What changes is the lens and right now that lens is AI.”

While AI is influencing how work is delivered, how teams are structured, and what is expected from individual roles, it is not replacing the underlying reasons organisations hire.

What has changed is:

  • Greater scrutiny on where value is created
  • Higher expectations of individual capability
  • Less tolerance for roles that do not directly contribute to outcomes

Instead of a completely new hiring model, the result is much more disciplined one where every role is expected to deliver measurable value.

The bottom line

AI may be changing how work gets done, but it’s not what’s driving hiring.

Across financial services, hiring is being dictated by risk, cost and accountability.

Organisations are becoming more selective, roles are being redefined, and expectations of individuals are increasing.

For leaders, the implication is clear: Hiring decisions are now more closely tied to measurable value than at any point in the past decade.

If you’re navigating cost pressure, regulatory change or shifting expectations, our Financial Services recruitment specialists can share what’s happening across the market. Reach out to discuss how these shifts are impacting your hiring priorities.

Mitch Churi on identity, radio and making things happen

Mitch Churi on identity, radio and making things happen

Posted April 14, 2026

“I filled out my customs form. I just wrote ‘entertainer’ for my occupation.”

When Mitch Churi flew back home from a holiday, that’s what he landed on.

He’s a radio presenter, content creator, dabbles in stand-up comedy, the list goes on. Mitch is someone who has built his career by moving quickly, instinctively, and not by a defined path.

As a result, he’s often left without a clear title to tie it all together.

We recently sat down with Mitch for our latest episode of Not Just A…, and within minutes, it was clear his job title was the least interesting part about him.

Good for the vibes

Long before radio, content, or “entertainer” made its way onto his customs fork, Mitch had already figured out his role.

“I kind of lived my life bringing some vibes, being the morale guy,” he says. “I was a water polo player as a kid, for around 10 years. I loved it. I was in the position where I didn’t have to swim much, positioned right at the back. I was very much the morale hire.”

It’s something that completely tracks as he reflected on other opportunities he’s had.

“I was hired at KIIS FM as the morale guy as well. Very good for the team, good for the banter. And that kind of got me onto the air,” he shares.

Starting without a clear plan

Mitch started off as a theatre kid.

“I was a kid that grew up in theatre, studying theatre, and representing Australia at a national level ,” he says. “We toured London when I was 12, we toured to Hong Kong. I did shows all around the world with a theatre troupe.”

For a while, acting was the plan.

“I wanted to do theatre full time, but I was also intimidated by NIDA and WAAPA and these big schools. I genuinely thought that I wasn’t good enough at that age.”

So he pivoted to a journalism and performance double degree at University of Wollongong. That lasted about a month.

“Tertiary full-time study as we know it doesn’t work for me,” he says. “I don’t retain information in that way, I very much like to get hands-on and work and jump in. That’s how I learn.”

So he leaned into experience, moving to New York when he was 19 to study a bit at the Atlantic Theatre Company and then spending a few months in LA.

As a big believer in making what you want, his mantra in life is just: “Make the call. Do it. Nothing’s going to come to you.”

And he did.

Finding his voice on air

Mitch has worked under many titles, but he’ll always lead with radio.

“I lead with radio presenter only because that’s my craft,” he says. “That’s what I’ve honed my skills in for ten years on a commercial radio station. I love radio.”

Giving him the structure and momentum for his career, radio was a place he developed his voice in real time. And like most things, it wasn’t without its own layers to navigate.

“I’m openly gay, and I’m openly gay when I’m on air,” he says. “I had issues with that when I first started in radio. When I first got on air, it was 2016. The same sex plebiscite happened in 2017, and I was still in the closet. I was still 22 or 23 and hadn’t come to terms with it myself.”

But when he did come out in 2018, he never actually came out on air, it naturally became part of how he showed up authentically as he “just started talking about partners.”

This authenticity also came with some resistance.

“There’s also a lot of criticism,” he says. “You get a lot of people saying, ‘Well, you don’t have to talk about that. Just be yourself. If it comes up, it comes up. You don’t need to make it your whole personality.’ To which I tend to disagree. If you let these things fester and let them melt away and disappear into the shadows, that’s when you risk the loudest voices, which are homophobia or discrimination.”

And his approach of being honest about who he was carried into one of the biggest decisions of his career.

Making things happen

After a decade in radio, Mitch Churi was forced into his next move.

His departure from KIIS FM was public, unexpected and, in his own words, left him stuck.

“It was a very publicised exit, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with myself,” he says. “I didn’t know what the right next step was. I was sort of crippled by the decisions and the weight of what to do next.”

For the first time in his career, the momentum stopped.

And instead of clarity, there was uncertainty.

“I thought, I’m struggling behind the scenes. I’m not sure how to get there. I’m trying to make this happen. I’ll just take everyone along on the journey with me.”

By documenting his process and being honest about his struggles, people connected with him and from there his audience grew.

And this instance was only one of many that has defined Mitch’s career.

“I’m a big believer in you gotta make what you want,” he says. “I’ve had the realisation that nothing will come to you. You have to make things happen in life or else. Just make the call. You know that Kris Jenner meme? ‘What if you just call Taylor [Swift] up? Just call her up.’”

His willingness to put himself forward and ask the question has become his default.

“I’d rather regret failing than not doing it at all.”

The person behind it all

Outside of work, Mitch is pretty much exactly who you’d expect.

“I’d argue I’m very similar,” he says. “I’m a more muted version of myself. One of my favourite things to do is drive. I love driving, putting on the radio or a podcast and just letting my mind wander because it can be a bit crazy inside there.”

He finds it’s something that grounds him, especially when his mind is usually running a hundred miles an hour.

“I’ve got many a hobby. I love cooking,” he says. “I’m a bit of a nerd, I love a good YouTube algorithm deep dive. The algorithm knows me so well. I can just lie there in bed and do a good 2-3 hours of YouTube algorithms.”

His favourite thing to cook at the moment?

“I’m big on toast right now,” he laughs. “Toast is so back. It’s just so easy, you can put so many things on that bread.”

And then there are the niche interests that feel slightly unexpected, but very on brand once he explains them.

“I can play the theremin. The X-Files instrument,” he shares. “Big wooden block with a big metal pole and you control it with the electromagnetic field of your body. I picked it up during COVID because I wanted to be different and stand out from the pack. It’s silly, it’s fun, it’s ridiculous.”

He also has a thing for planes.

“I love aeroplanes,” he says. “I love the livery of planes. I love Airbus and Boeing. I love researching the planes and the new editions and why they upgraded it. I love the Airbus A380 and I have a thing about planes.”

A mix of interests that don’t exactly neatly align but somehow still feel very him.

Not just a creator

Mitch Churi has spent most of his career in defined roles — radio presenter, content creator, cultural commentator, entertainer.

But after KIIS, he stopped waiting for the next role to define him and created his own.

Launching his own show, Mitch shifted from being part of someone else’s platform to building one himself on his terms, with his voice at the centre.

To hear more from Mitch in his own words, watch the full episode on our YouTube channel.