Over the past year, a pattern has been emerging across global businesses: teams are getting smaller, but the pile of work isn’t.

Artificial intelligence is changing how organisations operate, and companies are beginning to redesign their workforces around it.

For the past two years, conversations about AI and jobs have sounded the same. Some argue artificial intelligence will replace workers at scale, other insist the fears are overblown and AI is “simply another productivity tool”.

A third perspective is now emerging: Some employers are using AI as a catalyst to trim the fat and restructure their workforce.

Our view? None of these explanations are mutually exclusive. What we’re seeing across industries is likely a combination of all three.

The result is something more structural than a wave of mass layoffs. Instead, we’re at the beginning of a workforce reset shaped by human-AI collaboration.

The signals are already appearing

The last 12 months saw a growing number of companies linking major restructures directly to AI adoption.

Australian logistics software giant, WiseTech Global, recently announced plans to cut 2,000 staff from its global workforce as it integrates AI across its operations and software platforms.

Atlassian also announced approximately 1,600 layoffs in early March as part of an ongoing restructuring tied to AI and operational efficiency.

Globally, similar patterns are emerging. Amazon has cut tens of thousands of roles across multiple rounds of layoffs, while simultaneously investing heavily in AI-driven products and infrastructure.

Other organisations, including Citi, eBay and Meta, have also announced workforce reductions while reallocating investment towards AI and automation.

Individually, these can be seen as cost-cutting decisions but viewed together, they suggest something else:

Organisations are rebalancing their workforces around a new operating model.

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

“AI isn’t stealing jobs, but it is reshaping them. We’re seeing smarter, leaner teams and a new operating model defined by human and machine collaboration.”

This is simply capital reallocation

Most coverage and public discussion have framed these recent layoffs as a reaction to AI disruption but, in many cases, organisations are making deliberate investment decisions.

When new technologies dramatically increase productivity, companies often rebalance resources to reduce effort in some areas while increase investment elsewhere.

Thomas draws a parallel with financial markets:

“When investors anticipate structural change, they liquidate certain assets and redeploy capital into areas with greater potential. We’re seeing something similar with human capital as organisations adapt to AI.”

In other words, the workforce changes happening today are signs of reallocation.

Capital freed up from traditional workflows is being reinvested into areas such as:

• AI infrastructure
• Data platforms
• Product innovation
• AI-enabled services

And many organisations making cuts today are simultaneously hiring in completely different capability areas.

Where AI is changing work fastest

The early impact of AI on work isn’t evenly distributed, and the roles most affected tend to share similar characteristics:

• High repetition
• Structured workflows
• Process-heavy tasks
• Large operational scale

These are all areas where AI can quickly deliver productivity gains.

Take software engineering.

Historically, large development teams spent significant time writing routine code, testing functionality and maintain systems. Today, generative AI tools can produce and review code at a dramatically faster speed.

This capability is what led WiseTech’s chief executive to state:

“The era of manually writing code as a core act of engineering is over.”

Importantly, this doesn’t wipe the need for engineers but instead changes the nature of their work as productivity tools improve.

Instead of spending most of their time writing code, developers will increasingly focus on:

• System design
• Architecture
• Problem solving
• AI oversight

Another emerging impact is being felt earlier in the talent pipeline.

Early-career roles, particularly graduate and junior positions, are among the first to be affected as AI reduces the need for large numbers of entry-level workers performing repetitive or structured tasks.

Based on Talent placement data, entry-level hiring has declined by 19% in the last two years.

Over time, this creates a structural risk for organisations. If fewer early-career professionals are entering the workforce and developing experience, the pipeline of mid-level and senior talent available in five to ten years may be significantly smaller.

Put simply: if organisations shrink the base of the talent pyramid today, they may struggle to fill the top of it tomorrow.

The new workforce will favour AI-native talent

Organisations are rebuilding around different capabilities and employees who understand how to work effectively with AI systems are becoming significantly more valuable.

Thomas summarises the shift:

“AI may not take your job, but someone who knows how to use it effectively will.”

While this doesn’t mean every worker needs to become an AI engineer, AI literacy is quickly becoming a core professional capability like how digital literacy became essential two decades ago.

People who can design workflows around AI, interpret outputs and combine machine insights with human discernment will increasingly sit at the centre of modern organisations.

Some companies will inevitably overcorrect

Periods of technological change rarely happen smoothly, and history shows that productivity breakthroughs often trigger cycles of over-correction and adjustment.

Some organisations cut too deeply, and others move too slowly but eventually, capability gaps become clear and hiring will rebound.

One emerging example of this dynamic is what some observers are calling the “AI layoff boomerang.”

Swedish fintech Klarna provides one example. After aggressively promoting AI-driven efficiency and reducing headcount, the company later acknowledged it needed to rebuild human capability in key areas after the cuts went too far.

And this pattern may be more common than many assume. A Careerminds survey from February 2026 found that 32.7% of organisations that conducted AI-led layoffs had already rehired between 25-50% of the roles they initially eliminated.

Another 35.6% reported they had already rehired more than half of the roles that were cut.

In other words, the labour market may already be seeing the early stages of an AI layoff boomerang.

Thomas believes the same pattern may emerge during the current transition:

“AI is a powerful tool, but it won’t replace people entirely. Some organisations will realise they’ve cut the capability they still need and will find themselves needing to rebuild it.”

If history is any guide, the current wave of restructures may eventually be followed by new hiring cycles focused on different skills.

What this means for organisations

The important question for leaders is: How do you design work in an AI-enabled world?

Three priorities are becoming increasingly clear.

1. Redesign work, not just roles

AI changes tasks first before changing entire jobs. Instead of asking ‘which roles can AI replace?’, organisations should ask:

How should work be structured so humans and AI each contribute their strength?

2. Invest in AI-native capability

Future teams will rely on a blend of technical and human capabilities:

• AI literacy
• Critical thinking
• Systems thinking
• Leadership and collaboration
• Resilience
• Adaptability

And the organisations that invest in these capabilities early will move faster than their competitors who are still adapting.

3. Think more strategically about workforce design

AI adoption also creates an opportunity to rethink how teams are structured.

Not every requirement needs to be filled through a permanent hire. In some cases, the work may be better delivered through specialist contractors or project-based expertise.

Blended workforce models can combine the stability of permanent teams with the flexibility of external specialists. This approach can help organisations scale skills up or down as demand changes, while still maintaining control of intellectual property and reducing operational risk.

The conversation moving forward

It isn’t enough to keep focusing on the single question, ‘Will AI replace workers?’

The bigger shift already underway is the redesign of the workforce itself.

Future organisations are likely to operate with fundamentally different workforce models, combining permanent employees, project-based contractors and AI-augmented teams working together to deliver outcomes.

These blended teams will allow organisations to scale capability and productivity more fluidly as demand changes, reducing the need for the large-scale redundancies that often follow rigid workforce structures.

However, this evolution also places greater responsibility on leaders to think more carefully about workforce design before building out their teams.

Organisations that can plan for flexibility by building contingency and adaptability into their workforce strategies will be better positioned to navigate technological change without repeatedly cycling through major layoffs when market conditions shift.

The question is no longer whether AI will reshape work. It’s whether organisations are designing their workforce to adapt to that reality.

We recently sat down with Yumi Stynes on our latest podcast episode, and within minutes it was clear: she’s the kind of person who has always pushed against the edges of where life might take her.

Before the television career, before the books, before the public platform, there was a younger version of Yumi who felt completely adrift.

Her solution?

Stick out her thumb and see what happened.

Hitchhiking towards possibility

“Before I started working at Channel V in the year 2000, I was someone who used to hitchhike,” she says.

Yumi would hitchhike from Byron Bay up through northern Queensland, sometimes travelling hundreds of kilometres with truck drivers and strangers who stopped to offer a ride.

“It was pretty fun, but it was also incredibly freeing,” she says. “There was this feeling that my destiny was literally in my thumb. I could go somewhere completely different based on who picked me up that day.”

At the time she had just finished university where she volunteered at a radio station and felt completely untethered.

“I had a part-time job as a bartender, as a kitchen hand. I was partying too much, and I didn’t really know what I was doing with my life.”

Hitchhiking gave her a sense of perspective.

“I just had this real sense of freedom,” she says. “I think there are moments in time when you’re pre-children and you don’t have a serious job where you can take those risks. There’s not much on the line.”

And in hindsight, that mindset would become a defining theme in her career.

Auditioning when you don’t feel invited

Despite always wanting to work in creative spaces, Yumi didn’t believe media was somewhere someone like her could belong.

“There weren’t many Asian people in media at the time,” she says. “So it didn’t feel like something that was available to me.”

The turning point came when a friend spotted an ad for auditions at Channel V and suggested she try.

“For a long time, I was extremely wary of doing anything cringey or embarrassing,” she says. “So, auditioning meant being humble enough to say, ‘I want this job badly enough to line up with hundreds of other hopefuls and try.’ At that point I thought, what have I got to lose? If I can’t give it a go now, I probably never will.”

That willingness to put herself out there ultimately opened the door to her career in youth media.

Preparation over panic

In the early days of music television, preparation wasn’t exactly a formalised process.

“We were flying by the seat of our pants,” Yumi says. “Trying to remember some Smash Hits article we read three years ago and hoping we remembered the band members’ names.”

Over time she realised that the key to confidence wasn’t personality or charisma. It was simply: preparation.

“I eventually realised there were a couple of things I needed to do,” she says. “I needed to be sober, I couldn’t be hungover or stoned, and I needed to do as much preparation as I could.”

Once she started approaching interviews that way, something shifted.

“When you arrive fully prepared and your body is good, I don’t think there’s any need for anxiety. You just feel quite psyched and joyful to be there.”

It was a simple revelation which she now applies across every part of her professional life.

Walking the fine line of authenticity

Authenticity is often celebrated in media, but living it can be complicated.

“It’s tricky because there have been times where being fully myself has got me into trouble and gotten my shows axed or in jeopardy,” Yumi admits.

Working in youth media meant constantly navigating the line between being authentic and being too provocative.

“You’re often asked to be edgy,” she says. “But sometimes you walk that fine line between edgy and, ‘Oh, I’ve crossed the line and I’m getting fired now.’ There have been times where I have been suspended from work, which wasn’t publicly known at the time. I had to take leave and just stay home and rot while pregnant with my first child.”

More recently, she found herself stepping into a very different challenge: emceeing the Feminist Roast at the Sydney Opera House’s annual All About Women festival with only two days’ notice.

“I thought, okay, I know how to work a big room,” she says. “I know how to talk feminism really fluently, and I’m just going to be very present and react according to my truth and my spirit.”

When one speaker delivered a heartbreaking story that left the audience in tears, Yumi had to guide the room through the emotional moment.

“You have to show a lot of sensitivity and be a really good listener and know what to say to move on to the next phase of a big show like that. I allowed them all to breathe and allowed them to see that I was having an emotional reaction too,” she says. “If I’m allowed to cry, that gives them permission to cry.”

Then came the reset.

“I said, ‘I want you to leave this room with your DNA re-arranged. I want you to be a different person when you get home to the person who left home this evening’… And then we wrestled the whole entire room towards a joyful finale.”

Learning to ask for help

One of the most transformative lessons in Yumi’s life came to her during her divorce.

“I’d get a lawyer letter or email and I’d freeze, unable to understand or process the words,” she says. “I had a group of friends who were good at analysing and would just translate it to me.”

The situation forced her to do something she always found herself resisting: asking for help.

“I never wanted to be the needy person, or the person who was a bit broken or was having a crisis and needed to ask for help,” says Yumi.

This discovery surprised her.

“I realised that asking for help isn’t weakness,” she says. “It really strengthens the bonds that you have with your existing peer group of friends. People feel really loved and special if they can help you.”

It also changed the way she thinks about relationships.

“I just fell wildly in love with my friends during that time,” she says. “And I realised that the whole partnership and coupling thing that had been sold to me all my life wasn’t necessarily what I needed.”

Instead, she began prioritising friendship in every part of her life, including work.

“I think every workmate is a potential friend,” she says. “I think it’s a really great place to make friends and the thing I have learned is to be courageous and make the first move when building friendships at work, home, or at the gym. I just really enjoy people.”

Feeding people who need it

While much of Yumi’s public work centres around broadcasting and writing, one of the things she imagines most vividly for her future has nothing to do with media.

“One of the things I can visualise for my distant future is I want to work in some sort of space where I feed people who are hungry,” she says. “Not fine dining, just feeding people who need to be fed. I have such an urge in me to work out how to scale nourishment to reach as many people as I possibly could.”

It’s an idea she’s carried quietly for her entire life.

“My entire life story is going to be leading to that, I hope,” she says. “Can you imagine? I’ll be 70 and so busy working trying to feed people who are hungry.”

Not just a broadcaster

For someone who has spent decades behind microphones and cameras, Yumi’s greatest skill might not be what people expect

When we asked about her hidden talent, she reveals, “I’m a really good listener.”

It’s a skill she believes many aspiring podcasters, authors, broadcasters and TV presenters underestimate.

“You can be a great talker, have the gift of the gab, but firstly, you need to be a really good listener. And that’s the foundation of everything — podcaster, author, friend.”

Beyond broadcasting, beyond books, beyond the public platform, it’s Yumi’s curiosity about people, and her ability to truly listen, that continues to shape how she moves through the world.

To hear more of Yumi’s story in her own words, watch the full episode on our YouTube channel.

Talent has been announced as one of nine top-performing private Australian companies recognised for their outstanding business performance in Deloitte Australia’s 2025 Best Managed Companies awards. It is the only Australian recruitment business to be recognised in the winners.

Now in its sixth year – and supported by Google Cloud – the Best Managed Companies program identifies and celebrates privately-owned and managed companies across Australia that set high standards of business performance and shines a light on the power of private businesses as innovators and major contributors to Australia’s economy.

The program uses a tried and tested framework for determining success, and winners are recognised based on achieving high scores across four key categories: strategy; culture and commitment; capabilities and innovation; and governance and financials.

Global CEO, Mark Nielsen, spoke on Talent’s commitment to leading change and empowering people to move forward without fear.

“Winning Deloitte’s Best Managed Companies award for the third year in a row is something we’re incredibly proud of. At Talent, change is our competitive advantage. Our vision is to change the game so that our customers and our people can move forward fearlessly, and that ambition drives how we innovate, invest and lead. With an 85% employee engagement rate, our culture remains a powerful foundation for performance. This recognition reflects the belief, resilience and commitment of our teams globally, who continue to push boundaries and deliver impact for our clients and contractors.”

Global COO, Megan Woodbury, said Talent’s continued success is driven by clarity and operational discipline.

“Sustained performance doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from clarity of strategy, disciplined execution and creating an environment where people can do their best work. As a people-powered business, attracting, developing and retaining exceptional talent is central to our success. Being recognised again by Deloitte reflects the consistency and commitment of our teams. We remain focused on delivering measurable impact for our clients and continued growth built on strong governance and operational excellence.”

Read more on Deloitte’s Best Managed Companies list here: www.bestmanagedcompanies.com.au

Organisations across Australia are hiring more selectively, but when they need niche capability delivered quickly, they’re still willing to pay a premium.

Architecture, AI, cyber, and large-scale program delivery dominate this year’s highest contractor day rates. And the pattern mirrors what we’re seeing across permanent hiring: depth, delivery experience, and commercial accountability command the strongest returns.

Based on Australian averages, here are the top 10 tech contractor day rates right now.

10. Data & AI Manager – $1,432 per day

As AI moves from experimentation into production, organisations are investing in leaders who can govern data platforms, manage AI adoption, and align delivery to business outcomes.

Strong demand for Data & AI Managers is emerging across:

• Sydney financial services and insurance
• Melbourne healthcare and utilities
• Brisbane state government transformation programs

AI requires strong data leadership and contractors with both delivery and governance experience are in high demand.

9. Cloud Architect – $1,448 per day

Cloud remains a core transformation pillar across businesses and contract Cloud Architects are being engaged across:

• Canberra federal cloud uplift programs (secure-by-design environments)
• Sydney enterprise modernisation initiatives
• Melbourne utilities and infrastructure transformation

With compliance requirements tightening and cloud spend under scrutiny, experienced architects who can balance scalability, security and cost control are commanding strong rates.

8. LLM Architect – $1,456 per day

Large Language Model deployment has shifted from proof-of-concept to production. LLM Architects who can design, deploy and secure LLM frameworks at enterprise scale are rare and priced accordingly.

We’re seeing strong short-term engagements across:

• Enterprise AI programs
• Consulting-led AI delivery
• Financial services and regulated environments

Real production experience is what drives premium rates.

7. AI Principal Engineer – $1,456 per day

AI Principal Engineers with end-to-end deployment experience remain in short supply and organisations are engaging contractors to:

• Accelerate AI implementation
• Validate vendor solutions
• Optimise model performance
• Build AI-enabled workflows

Demand is particularly strong in Sydney fintech, Melbourne enterprise environments, and Perth resources automation programs.

When speed matters, contractors win.

6. Agent Architect – $1,488 per day

Agentic AI has introduced a new specialist contracting niche and Agent Architects are being brought in to:

• Design intelligent automation frameworks
• Integrate AI agents into enterprise systems
• Build governance structures around autonomy

Consulting firms and enterprise transformation programs are leading demand, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.

5. SOC Manager – $1,488 per day

Security Operations Centre (SOC) Managers remain critical across high-risk sectors.

We’re seeing elevated demand in:

• Canberra federal and defence environments
• Sydney financial services
• Perth critical infrastructure and mining

With threat volumes rising and compliance obligations tightening, real-time operational leadership continues to command strong contractor rates.

4. Cybersecurity Manager – $1,504 per day

Demand for cybersecurity leadership remains to outpace supply and demand for proven managers continues to outpace supply.

Contract engagements are typically tied to:

• Security uplift programs
• Regulatory remediation initiatives
• Incident response stabilisation

Across government, banking and utilities, experienced Cybersecurity Managers remain one of the most bankable contractor profiles in the market.

3. Master Scheduler – $1,504 per day

In an increasingly cost-controlled environment, delivery certainty matters more than ever.

Master Schedulers supporting large infrastructure, defence, and transformation programs are commanding high rates, particularly in:

• Canberra government portfolios
• Adelaide defence programs
• Perth infrastructure and resources projects

When multimillion-dollar programs are on the line, scheduling precision becomes commercially critical.

2. Enterprise Architect – $1,512 per day

Enterprise Architects continue to sit near the top of the contractor market with short-term engagements typically focusing on:

• Legacy rationalisation
• AI-readiness frameworks
• Cloud strategy alignment
• Cost optimisation programs

Demand remains strongest in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, particularly across banking, government and national transformation initiatives.

Even on a contract basis, strategic oversight commands a premium.

1. Program Manager – $1,520 per day

Program Managers top the contractor list in 2026.

Large-scale digital, cloud and AI programs require experienced leadership that can manage risk, stakeholder complexity and commercial accountability.

We’re seeing sustained contractor demand across:

• NSW and Victorian public sector
• Enterprise cloud transformation programs
• Cybersecurity uplift portfolios
• National infrastructure initiatives

When delivery timelines tighten and budgets are scrutinised, proven Program Managers remain the most valuable contractor asset in the market.

What does this tell us about contracting in 2026?

Three themes define the contractor market:

1. Architecture and governance roles dominate
2. AI production experience commands a premium
3. Cyber and program delivery demand are outpacing supply

While some sectors have moved back towards permanent hiring for long-term capability, contractor demand remains strong where speed, specialisation and risk mitigation are required.

In a more disciplined hiring market, contractors are being engaged with clearer scopes, defined outcomes, and stronger accountability.

Want deeper contractor insights?

Explore broader contracting trends and search detailed salary benchmarks in our More Than Money Salary Guide to ensure your rates and offers reflect where the market truly sits.

Last updated: 6 March 2026

Across Australia, tech salaries have stabilised compared to the post-pandemic peak. But at the top end of the market, specialist architecture, AI capability, and enterprise-wide oversight continue to command significant premiums.

Based on Talent’s Australian average permanent salary data, this year’s rankings tell a clear story: enterprise architecture and AI-led capability now define the highest-paid roles in tech.

Compared to 2025, traditional platform-specific architecture and operational security leadership roles have edged down, while AI-native and enterprise-wide architecture positions have climbed.

Here are the 10 highest paying tech jobs in Australia right now.

10. Applications Solution Architect – $230k

Applications Solution Architects remain critical across enterprise transformation programs, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne across retail, healthcare, education, and financial services.

With hiring framed around ROI and delivery impact, these professionals are responsible for translating business strategy into scalable, integrated solutions. We’re seeing strong demand in:

• Sydney enterprise environments rationalising legacy systems
• Melbourne public sector and utilities transformation programs
• Canberra government digital modernisation initiatives

As organisations prioritise system integration and measurable outcomes, experienced Solution Architects remain highly bankable.

9. Agent Architect – $231k

Agentic AI has moved from experimentation to implementation and Agent Architects are emerging as a premium skillset. These specialists who design, govern and deploy AI agents within enterprise ecosystems are particularly in demand across consulting firms and enterprise SaaS environments.

Demand is strongest in:

• Sydney financial services and insurance
• Melbourne enterprise and health tech programs
• Large consulting partners building production-grade AI capability

As AI governance becomes more scrutinised, organisations are paying for professionals who can balance automation with oversight.

8. Program Manager – $232k

Transformation has become more scrutinised.

Senior Program Managers with experience delivering enterprise platform migrations, cybersecurity uplift programs, AI implementation initiatives and cloud transformation portfolios are commanding strong remuneration across:

• NSW government
• Victorian public sector
• ASX-listed enterprises

Execution risk is expensive. Proven delivery leadership is not.

7. LLM Architect – $232k

Large Language Models are no longer innovation-lab experiments and LLM Architects with production deployment experience are in short supply. Particularly those who understand governance, security and enterprise integration.

We’re seeing demand accelerate across:

• Sydney’s financial services sector
• Melbourne’s enterprise AI initiatives
• Canberra’s secure government environments

The market is shifting from “can you build it?” to “have you deployed it safely and at scale?”

6. AI Principal Engineer – $232k

AI has solidified its place onto boardroom agendas and Principal Engineers leading AI deployment, optimisation and enterprise integration are commanding strong salaries. Especially when paired with domain expertise.

Strongest demand is emerging in:

• Sydney financial services and fintech
• Melbourne healthcare and aged care digital transformation
• Brisbane state government and higher education programs
• Perth mining and resources automation environments

From innovation roadmaps, AI capability is now embedded into core operating models.

5. Cloud Architect – $233k

Cloud remains foundational to every major technology strategy and with the APS’s new Whole-of-Government Cloud Computing Policy reshaping federal cloud strategy and enterprises continuing multi-year migrations, senior Cloud Architects remain highly sought after.

Demand is strongest in:

• Canberra, driven by secure-by-design mandates and compliance requirements
• Sydney enterprise environments modernising legacy infrastructure
• Melbourne utilities and green energy programs supporting grid transformation

Particularly across AWS and Azure in regulated environments, secure cloud capability continues to command a premium.

4. Engineering Manager – $234k

Technical leaders who can balance delivery with commercial alignment have become increasingly valuable.

Engineering Managers are now responsible for:

• Leaner, AI-enabled teams
• Higher productivity expectations
• Stronger cross-functional collaboration
• Clearer ROI accountability

More than just overseeing code, the strongest leaders are aligning engineering effort with business performance.

Demand remains steady across Sydney and Melbourne’s startup ecosystems, Adelaide’s defence programs and enterprise transformation environments nationwide.

3. Cybersecurity Architect – $246k

Despite broader salary stabilisation, Cybersecurity Architects continue to command premium remuneration in the face of evolving cyber threats. Particularly those with:

• Secure cloud expertise
• DevSecOps capability
• GRC integration experience
• Critical infrastructure resilience exposure

High-demand sectors include:

• Financial services
• Federal and state government
• Defence-adjacent programs
• Energy, utilities and mining

In Canberra especially, cleared cyber professionals remain in extremely short supply.

2. Big Data Architect – $250k

As AI programs mature, data foundations have become a non-negotiable. Big Data Architects responsible for scalable platforms, governance frameworks and real-time analytics environments are commanding some of the highest salaries in the country.

Demand is strongest across:

• Sydney financial services and insurance
• Melbourne utilities and renewable energy transformation
• Canberra federal data governance programs
• Perth resources and logistics automation

Everyone knows that AI without strong data architecture fails and businesses are paying accordingly.

1. Enterprise Architect – $262k

Enterprise Architects top the list again in 2026.

With technology investment tightly tied to productivity, resilience and measurable ROI, Enterprise Architects are responsible for aligning strategy, systems, risk and execution across entire organisations.

Demand remains strongest in:

• Sydney banking and enterprise environments
• Melbourne public sector and utilities
• Canberra government and defence programs
• Large-scale national transformation initiatives

In a sharper hiring market, strategic oversight carries the highest premium.

What does this tell us about the 2026 tech market?

Three clear themes define this year’s top salaries:

1. Architecture dominates
2. AI capability has shifted from experimental to enterprise-critical
3. Cyber and cloud demand continues to outpace supply

While overall salary growth has normalised compared to previous peaks, specialist architecture and AI leadership roles continue to command significant premiums.

For candidates, depth and delivery experience is what will make you stand out.

For employers, clarity of scope and decisiveness in hiring remains critical in securing top-tier talent.

Looking for detailed salary benchmarks?

This list reflects Australian averages across permanent tech roles. For state-by-state breakdowns, industry-specific insights and contract rate comparisons, explore our full More Than Money Salary Guide.

Interested in the flexibility provided by contract work? Find out the top 10 contractor day rates for 2026 or learn more about contracting through Talent.

Last updated: 6 March 2026

“I’m just your regular coastal girl.”

If you asked Rhiannan Iffland, professional cliff diver and seven-time consecutive Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series champion, to describe herself, that’s what she’d say.

Away from competition, off-season looks like wine with friends, surging, mountain biking, and skiing.

“I’m not great at any of them,” she admits. “But I really enjoy giving things a go. Competing is such a high emotional state. When it ends, I need something else to fill my cup.”

Within minutes of chatting to her on our latest episode, it becomes clear that the most defining thing about her isn’t the heights she jumps from, but how she approaches them.

Fear, to Rhiannan, is less about something to conquer and more about something to sit with.

Yes, she dives off platforms more than 20 metres above water. And yes, she won her first championship in 2016, the first-ever rookie to do so in their debut year.

But what stood out most wasn’t her career achievements. It was her honesty about the little voice in her head every single time she climbs the ladder.

Fear is part of the job

“That’s the biggest misconception about us divers,” she says. “That we are not scared. I can honestly tell you that every single time I go up there, there’s always that voice. That overwhelming feeling of emotions. It does get easier to deal with, but it never goes away.”

Instead of eliminating that fear, she manages it.

“I find most of the fear happens in the hours prior to the dive,” she explains. “I sit with it. I accept it. And by the time I step off, I have to focus on doing three flips with two twists.”

Unlike the preconceived notions of adrenaline-seeking chaos, Rhiannan’s sport is about precision, repetition and trust in muscle memory.

Even her most technical dive — the one packed with the most twists and rotations — still makes her question herself.

“The amount of times I’ve done it, I still step out there and think, am I going to know what to do? Is my body going to take over? And it usually does.”

That trust was tested in Romania, inside a salt mine 150 metres underground. “The water was 17% more dense than seawater, so the impact was strong. When you hit the water, you shot back up like a cork out of a champagne bottle… I didn’t know what to expect.”

It was a dive she could have never fully trained for, and her body just took over.

Joining the circus

Rhiannan grew up on the shores of Lake Macquarie, “I was always a water baby, always adventurous. I wasn’t really the academic of the family. I started gymnastics and diving when I was around nine.”

She then went into three-metre springboard and ten-metre platform diving with aspirations to represent Australia at the Olympics.

“I competed internationally as a junior and was on the cusp of making the senior team. Then I started to feel burnt out.”

Moving from Newcastle to Sydney to train full-time, Rhiannan reached a point where she felt she needed something different. After time off travelling, she was offered a job as an aquatic acrobat on a cruise ship.

“I remember running down to Dad in the backyard and saying, ‘Oh my God, they’ve offered me a job on a cruise ship as a diver.’ It was entertainment — diving, performing. That was the first time I was introduced to high diving above ten metres. As soon as I saw it in the show, I thought, I want to do that.”

The show was a one-hour long Cirque du Soleil-style — springboard diving, high diving, dancing (which she admits she was “absolutely terrible at”), aerial work, trampoline. Ten shows a week.

“It was fun. I developed new passions and skills, and it reignited my fire for the sport.”

Then, in 2013, women were introduced into the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.

“As soon as I saw that, I started transitioning my skills towards high diving.”

Never closing the door

If there’s one philosophy that’s shaped her life and her career, it’s simple. The advice came from her grandfather: “Never close the door. Never turn down an opportunity. If you don’t like it, walk back through.”

Her sister told her the same thing before she joined the cruise ship, “If it doesn’t work, you can get on the next plan and come home.”

“It seems simple, but it goes a long way,” she says. “It’s better to have given it a good shot than to get a couple of years down the track and look back and go, hang on a minute, I should have tried that.”

Cruise ship circus, high diving, world series, a salt mine. Each of these started as a door that opened.

Not just a professional cliff diver

Rhiannan is someone who has built her career on courage, perspective, and a willingness to walk through doors before knowing exactly what’s on the other side.

But what makes her compelling isn’t just the height she jumps from — it’s the clarity she’s developed about who she is beyond it.

Every time she steps onto a platform, she thinks about her nephews and niece.

“If it goes well, they’re going to love me. If it doesn’t go well, they’re going to love me.”

That grounding is her secret weapon and reminds her that her identity isn’t tied to a scorecard or a podium.

She’s learned that fear sharpens you. That burnout doesn’t always mean the end. That you can leave a sport, run away with the circus, almost join the police force, and still circle back to the thing you love.

And when she’s not competing, she’s passing it forward by coaching.

“I love sharing the sport,” she says. “High diving isn’t easy to get into. I’ve helped a few divers transition into it, and that’s something I care about — helping others learn the ropes.”

Not just a professional cliff diver, Rhiannan Iffland is a competitor who embraces nerves, a mentor who shares her craft, and a coastal girl who never quite stopped being the energetic kid flipping on the grass.

To hear more of Rhiannan’s story in her own words, watch the full episode on our YouTube channel.

We’re hosting an ENGAGE-exclusive webinar to share our latest hiring market updates across Australia and New Zealand, and what they mean for contractors heading into 2026.

Hosted by JP Browne, Steve Jobson, and Sophia Parrelli, this session will unpack what we’re seeing on the ground — from where demand is lifting, to which skills are commanding attention, and how contractors can stay competitive in a more selective market.

We’ll cover:

• Predictions for the 2026 contract market across AU and NZ
• The hottest skills and capabilities in demand
• Regional hotspots and where opportunities are emerging
• How AI, infrastructure and transformation work are reshaping contract roles
• Practical ways to position yourself ahead of the competition

We’ll also leave time for a live Q&A, where you can submit your questions and hear directly from our recruitment experts.

Whether you’re actively contracting, considering your next move, or simply want a clearer view of what’s ahead, this session will give you a grounded, practical update on the 2026 market.

Session information

Date: Thursday, 12th March

Time: 12:00pm AEDT // 2:00pm NZDT

Where: Online via Zoom

Your Talent experts

JP Browne

JP is a Practice Manager from Auckland who has worked in tech recruitment for over 20 years. JP specialises in recruiting for C-Suite and leadership teams as well as project transformation.

Music is a big passion of JP’s and his vinyls have pride of place in his office. When not listening to music, he’s learning the piano and dreams of taking up the bagpipes again, and when the weather allows he’ll be doing a very average job of playing golf.

Steve Jobson

Steve is an Account Director in our Canberra office with over 26 years’ recruitment experience. He specialises in delivering ICT capability across Defence, the APS and ACT Government, with deep expertise in cleared recruitment and secure project environments.

Outside of work, Steve’s interests lean toward the action and espionage genre — his bookshelf is stacked with Tom Clancy, Jack Carr, Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, Gregg Hurwitz and Mark Greaney. When he’s not immersed in a spy thriller, you’ll likely find him on the golf course or at the driving range.

Sophia Parrelli

Sophia is an Account Executive in our Sydney team with over five years’ recruitment experience. She partners with a range of corporate clients across technology, transformation, project services, engineering, and broader corporate functions.

When she’s not talking hiring strategy, Sophia can be found attempting pottery (with mixed results) or embracing her newest and most demanding role: full-time dog mum to her chaotic seven-month-old puppy, Bernie.

Find out more about contracting at Talent.

If you’re waiting for the telecommunications hiring market to “heat up” again, you might be looking for the wrong signal.

Because in 2026, the market is less “hot” and more focused.

As Steve Dybacz, Account Director and in-house telco expert at Talent Sydney, puts it:

“Two years ago there was a lot of vanity hiring. Now it’s about one question: can you actually deliver this programme without drama?”

This mindset shift is what’s defining telco hiring right now; more accountability and a much sharper lens on capability.

From hype to optimisation

12–24 months ago, 5G dominated the conversation. Today, the narrative has evolved.

“Fibre is still busy. 5G has moved from hype to optimisation,” Steve explains. “And we’re seeing far more spend on resilience and compliance than on flashy innovation.”

The build phase is far from over. Fibre rollout continues at pace as copper networks are decommissioned, while optimisation of existing infrastructure is now front and centre. Coverage, private networks and uptime are commercially critical — not just headline projects.

“Fibre and core network capability remain critical because the build is still happening — and copper is dying. That transition hasn’t slowed.”

At the same time, regulatory pressure, cyber risk and infrastructure funding cycles are shaping investment decisions.

“Resilience is no longer optional,” Steve says. “It’s a board-level issue.”

The skills that matter most this year

Hiring demand across telecommunications is clustering around a core set of high-impact capabilities:

• Network Engineering
• Fibre Optical Network Engineering
• RF Engineering
• Telecommunications Project Delivery
• Field Network Operations & Maintenance
• Network Operations (NOC)

RF engineering, in particular, is seeing renewed importance.

“RF matters more than the headlines suggest,” says Steve. “Coverage, optimisation and private networks are commercially important right now.”

And as budgets tighten, delivery risk is under scrutiny.

“Project people are in demand because budgets are tighter and failure is expensive. Organisations can’t afford programmes that drift.”

Meanwhile, operational roles are under relentless pressure.

“NOC and field capability doesn’t get the spotlight, but uptime is brutal and SLAs are unforgiving. That pressure isn’t going anywhere.”

This is not a speculative hiring cycle. It’s capability-led and operationally grounded.

The talent that’s hardest to find

While overall salary growth has stabilised, structural shortages remain in specific areas.

“The hardest profiles to secure are senior engineers who’ve actually designed the solution and then stood on site to deliver it,” Steve says. “That combination is rare.”

Candidates with the right clearances also remains particularly scarce.

“Cleared talent is a tiny pool — and everyone’s fishing in it.”

And there’s a noticeable thinning of the mid-market layer.

“Solid mid-level engineers who don’t need hand holding are surprisingly scarce. The market has thinned out in that middle layer.”

These gaps reflect a broader theme we explore in this year’s More than Money Salary Guide; skills and capability depth is becoming more important than job titles and headcount.

AI in telco: Evolution, not replacement

AI is increasingly present in telecommunications but not in the way headlines might suggest.

“It’s in optimisation, fault prediction and ticket triage,” Steve says. “It’s not replacing engineers but making average teams better and exposing weak ones.”

Organisations investing in AI are pairing it with strong engineering fundamentals and governance. It’s about augmentation, not substitution — a theme echoed in our broader Capability Gap insights.

“The organisations getting value from AI are the ones pairing it with strong engineering fundamentals, not using it as a shortcut.”

Leaner teams, sharper expectations

One of the clearest structural shifts in 2026 is how telco teams are being built.

“We’re seeing lean core teams, with specialists bolted on for programmes. Nobody’s carrying excess headcount.”

Permanent capability is focused on critical continuity and governance. Specialist contractors are brought in for defined programmes and complex delivery.

“Everyone’s wearing two hats now: technical delivery plus stakeholder management. Purely technical roles are becoming rarer.”

Stakeholder capability, commercial awareness and communication skills are now as important as deep technical expertise.

Salaries: Flat overall, premiums in pockets

Broadly speaking, remuneration has stabilised across much of the telco market, but premiums remain in specific segments.

“Salaries are broadly flat, but there are clear premiums for fibre design, RF optimisation, cleared roles and proven programme leads.”

In-demand specialists are still moving quickly when the right opportunity appears.

“Speed wins offers. The best engineers still move quickly when the right opportunity comes along.”

And employer behaviour is still critical to success.

“If you treat good engineers like commodities, you’ll lose them. The top performers know their value.”

The biggest hiring mistakes

Despite a more balanced market, some hiring behaviours haven’t caught up.

“Slow hiring processes are still the biggest obstacles,” Steve says.

And there’s also a tendency to over-specify.

“Unrealistic wish lists don’t help. If you’re looking for someone who can design, build, secure and commercially lead a programme, you’re narrowing the field dramatically.”

And high application volumes can be misleading.

“There’s still a tendency to assume supply equals suitability. High application volume doesn’t mean high capability.”

This mirrors what we’re seeing across sectors: volume is up, but genuine capability remains scarce.

The telco organisations who will succeed in 2026

Rather than aggressive expansion, telecommunications in 2026 is about resilience, optimisation and delivery.

Organisations that succeed will:

• Secure specialist capability early
• Structure teams intentionally
• Pair AI adoption with strong engineering fundamentals
• Move quickly when the right talent appears

The market may not feel “hot”, but it is demanding.

And in a sector where uptime is brutal and SLAs are unforgiving, focused hiring may prove more powerful than hype ever was.

To benchmark telco salaries, contract rates and in-demand skills across Australia and New Zealand, explore our More than Money Salary Guide 2026, including our latest Key Trends shaping capability investment in 2026.

We recently sat down with Dom Price on our latest podcast episode, and it didn’t take long to understand why his work resonates with so many people navigating modern workplaces.

Dom has spent years helping organisations rethink leadership, systems, and culture. He speaks to executives, teams, and communities around the world about the future of work as something people are already living day to day, rather than a distant concept.

However, behind his job, he’s someone driven less by answers and more by questions; someone who’s deeply curious about how work actually feels and why so many well-intentioned organisations keep getting in their own way.

A childhood shaped by questions

Dom describes himself as a curious kid; the kind who always wanted to understand why.

“I asked a lot of questions,” he says. “Probably too many questions.”

And that curiosity didn’t always make him popular in classrooms.

“I was the kind of kid who always wanted to understand why things worked the way they did. That showed up at school, sometimes to my teachers’ frustration. I wasn’t disruptive, but I was definitely challenging.  If something didn’t make sense to me, I’d ask why we were doing it that way. And sometimes the answer was, ‘Because that’s how it’s always been done.’”

Even as a child, this answer didn’t sit well with him. As he looks back, Dom sees a direct correlation between those early frustrations with the work he does now.

He’s still asking the same questions but now, it’s just at organisational scale: Why do we work like this? Who is this system really serving? What would happen if we designed work around people instead of control?

The gap between intention and reality

One of the themes Dom returns to again and again is the disconnect between what organisations say and what their systems actually do.

“People say, ‘We trust our teams,’” he explains. “But then they put layers of approval and control in place. And I couldn’t stop asking, ‘If you trust them, why does the system say otherwise?’”

This contradiction fascinates him. From his perspective, most workplaces don’t have a people problem.

“They have a system problem.”

Leaders ask people to collaborate more, innovate more, speak up more — without changing the environment they’re operating in.

“We reward compliance,” he says, “and then wonder why no one takes risks.”

Management, leadership, and the illusion of control

Dom is careful to distinguish between management and leadership, terms he explains are often used interchangeably, but shouldn’t be.

“They’re not [the same]. Management is about control. Leadership is about influence. Management asks, ‘Are you doing the thing?’ Leadership asks, ‘Are we doing the right thing?’ And a lot of organisations confuse the two.

“[This confusion happens] because management feels safer. Control gives the illusion of certainty. If I can measure it, approve it, and sign it off, I feel like I’m reducing risk.”

But that sense of safety is often an illusion. The more control organisations add, the slower and less adaptable they become, and it erodes the very trust that everyone says they want.

“Every leadership offsite starts with, “We trust our people.” And then you look at the system and think, “No you don’t.” If you trusted them, you wouldn’t need five layers of approval to buy a pen or make a decision that’s well within their role. We say we want autonomy, but we design environments that punish it.”

If it takes five layers of approvals to make a decision, the message is clear even if no-one says it out loud.

Psychological safety isn’t a buzzword

‘Psychological safety’ is a term Dom has always used deliberately.

“It’s about whether it’s safe to speak up,” he says. “Can I ask a question without being embarrassed? Can I challenge an idea without being punished? Can I admit I don’t know something? If the answer to those is no, then you don’t have psychological safety — no matter what your values poster says.”

Without that safety, he explains that everything else breaks down.

“You can’t have innovation without safety. You can’t have learning without safety. You can’t have accountability without safety.”

Instead, people retreat; they do the minimum and they protect themselves.

“And then leaders say, ‘Why is no-one engaged?’”

His frustration lies in the systems businesses have adopted across the board without question, directed at structures that ask for bravery and innovation while quietly penalising experimentation and questioning the status quo.

And this shows up in how most leaders are promoted into their roles.

Promoted into leadership, untrained for humans

One reason Dom has empathy for business leaders is that many of them were never set up to succeed.

“Most leaders were promoted because they were good at their jobs — not because they were good at leading people. And then we don’t train them. We just say, ‘Congrats, now you’re responsible for humans.’”

It’s something Dom finds astonishing and found himself questioning.

“We’d never do that with a system or a process, but we do it with people all the time.”

And the result is a generation of well-meaning leaders trying to do the right thing without the tools to do it well.

From a short stay to calling Australia home

Dom didn’t move to Australia intending to stay.

“The idea was I was only coming out here for a year and a half,” he says. “I’m like, I’ll play with it, I’ll taste it. Do a year and a half. And I had a plan to move back to the UK.”

At 24, the decision wasn’t part of a carefully mapped-out strategy. The same role he was doing in London existed in New York and Sydney.

“My instinct was… New York would be too much like London. So why not try the other thing?”

In London, his department was 450 people. In Sydney, it was 23. “If I’m one of 24, I think I’ll learn more than being one in 450.”

It first started with one Easter missed, then Christmas, then he went back home. And once he arrived, something had changed.

After a trip back to the UK, he was on the phone to his mum. “She’s like, ‘How’s it feel? You’re back?’ And I said, ‘You know what it’s like… it’s just so nice to get home.’ And I just said it. Normally. Didn’t even think.” There was a pause. “Well… that’s not your home. This is your home.”

“There’s no one day where it just became home,” he says. “It just kind of evolved over time.”

Permanent residency, citizenship, marriage. Instead of a milestone moment, at some point without announcing it, Australia stopped being the experiment and became home.

Failure, ego, and success

Failure has been one of Dom’s biggest teachers.

“I’ve failed plenty of times,” he says. “Projects that didn’t land. Ideas that didn’t work. Moments where I thought I had the right answer and absolutely didn’t. But I don’t see failure as a negative thing anymore.

“Early on, failure felt personal. Like it was a reflection of my capability or worth. Now I see it as data. Something didn’t work. Why? What can I learn from that? If you remove the ego from it, failure becomes incredibly useful.”

Removing ego from failure changes everything, and this shift in mindset turns mistakes into learning instead of shame. But this attitude change doesn’t happen automatically.

“No one enjoys getting something wrong,” Dom says. “But the organisations that grow are the ones that make it safe to experiment and safe to fail.”

When asked how he measure success now, Dom’s answer is simple: “Impact.”

If someone walks away thinking differently, acting differently, or feeling more confident to try something — he says that’s enough.

Titles matter far less to him than contribution.

“If you strip away the job title, what’s left?” he asks. “What value are you actually adding?”

It’s a question he applies to himself as much as to others.

Cooking without a recipe

Outside of work, Dom loves to cook.

“Cooking has just become such an important part of my life. I love it. […] This really frustrates my wife,” he laughs. “But I’ve never followed a recipe. I just make stuff up as I go along.”

And his spontaneity means meals are rarely replicated exactly.

“Every now and then you take something and go, ‘Can you make that again?’ And I’m like, yeah… maybe kind of something similar.”

For Dom, it’s creative release.

“I genuinely find it’s like a recharge for me,” he says. “The creativity side… the freedom, the liberation, the challenge… Where I get a real kick from it is seeing other people eat my food and enjoy it.”

His wife is a nutritionist and over time he’s realised their worlds aren’t as different as he first thought.

“When we first started dating, I thought what I did and what she did were completely different to each other. But the more I’ve become curious and interested in nutrition and wellness, I’m like, oh my God — what an overlap to the business world.”

What stood out to him was how she works.

“Even just the way she thinks about diagnosing before solving… the more holistic form of medicine. It’s not tablets or supplements or exercise or diet — it’s ‘and’.”

To Dom, that principle of diagnosing before you solve feels just as relevant in leadership.

“When you learn nutrition, you learn about mass population. But when you practice nutrition, every patient is different. And when you learn business, you learn generic case studies. So, if I go into any business and I don’t listen and learn for that nuance — the very unique elements — I will 100% recommend something that’s irrelevant.”

Completely different professions but more in common than you’d expect.

Not just an Activator

For a long time, Dom’s sense of self was closely tied to his work.

“If work was going well, I felt good. If it wasn’t, I felt like I was failing as a person.”

And untangling his work from him as a person took time.

“Work is something I do, not who I am,” he explains.

While he still cares deeply about the work he does, it’s no longer the only source of meaning.

“Relationships, health, curiosity, contribution outside of paid work — those things matter too.”

In a world that often leads with, “So, what do you do?” in Dom’s perspective, he says, “We lead with job titles as a shortcut to understanding someone. But it’s such a narrow slice of who they are.”

He’s built a career around helping organisations change how they work, but his real impact comes from how he thinks.

Dom’s interests don’t lie in certainty or performative leadership, he likes examining systems, behaviours, and the tactical everyday moments that quietly shape culture.

Not just an Activator, Dom is, by default, a challenger; someone who’s curious and believes work can be better and more human.

“We don’t need leaders who have all the answers,” he says. “We need leaders who ask better questions. Certainty shuts down conversation. Curiosity opens it up.”

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

Shadow IT. Every organisation has it. Employees adopting new tools without official approval because it helps them get the job done faster. Now we’re seeing its next evolution: shadow AI. And it’s spreading faster than most leaders realise.

As JP Browne, Practice Manager at Talent Auckland, explains:

“The use of AI tools is prolific in every organisation, and it kind of just happened. Executives are scrambling to catch up, to either capitalise on it or put some structure around it.”

From staff pasting data into ChatGPT to marketing teams using generative tools for campaigns, shadow AI is already shaping workflows, decisions, and customer interactions. The question is: will your organisation keep pace, or fall behind?

The upside of shadow AI

It’s tempting to see shadow AI only as a risk. And yes, it comes with security, compliance, and ethical challenges. But there’s also a huge opportunity: grassroots innovation.

“Most of the experiments we’ve seen start with individuals in departments,” JP says. “They’re dabbling to find productivity gains or new insights, and that’s what’s forcing organisations to pay attention.”

In other words, shadow AI is where many of the best use cases are discovered. It’s employees closest to the problem spotting where AI can create value. Ignoring that would be a mistake.

The risks leaders can’t ignore

Of course, there is a dark side. Shadow AI introduces risks that can’t be brushed off:

• Data leaks. Sensitive customer data pasted into public AI tools can breach privacy laws and contracts.
• Security gaps. AI-generated code may introduce vulnerabilities that slip past standard reviews.
• Compliance issues. Using unapproved tools in regulated industries can expose companies to fines or reputational damage.

Jack Jorgensen, General Manager of Data, AI & Innovation at our IT delivery arm Avec, recalls:

“We’ve seen AI drop entire databases and then apologise. If you’re not putting guardrails around this, you’re gambling with your business.”

Why locking it down doesn’t work

Some organisations’ instinct is to ban AI tools outright but that would be a losing battle. Employees will find workarounds if the technology genuinely helps them.

Instead, leaders need to acknowledge shadow AI as a reality and bring it into the light.

“You can’t just bury your head in the sand,” JP stresses. “AI is in everything now, even your phone updates. The only question is whether you create a framework for using it safely.”

Turning shadow AI into an advantage

So, how do you harness the innovation of shadow AI without exposing your business to unnecessary risk? Start with three steps:

1. Listen first. Find out what employees are already using and why. Often these experiments highlight gaps in existing tools or processes.
2. Set clear guardrails. Develop policies around data security, compliance, and acceptable use. Make them practical so employees don’t feel forced underground.
3. Encourage responsible innovation. Provide safe sandboxes or approved platforms where staff can test and share ideas.

Jack’s advice:

“Don’t focus on speed for the sake of it. Focus on building velocity and a foundation that lets you scale safely and keep experimenting.”

The innovation edge

Shadow AI is a sign your people are hungry to innovate. Rather than suppressing it, leaders should channel it. The companies that do will move faster, find better use cases, and keep their competitive edge, and those that don’t risk being left behind by their competitors and their own employees.

Shadow AI isn’t a threat to stamp out. It’s a wave to ride. The businesses that embrace it with the right guardrails will unlock innovation and the ones that don’t will spend the next five years scrambling to catch up.

Discover how other organisations are navigating shadow AI in our AI survey results.

AI is changing the way we work faster than most organisations can adapt. Tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are already baked into everyday workflows. But here’s the catch: the more we rely on AI, the more critical thinking becomes the skill that separates the leaders from the laggards.

As Jack Jorgensen, General Manager of Data, AI & Innovation at our IT delivery arm Avec, explains:

“It’s easy to get caught up in the speed AI gives you. But if you don’t understand the problem you’re solving or what happens when the system breaks, you’re setting yourself up for failure.”

AI is powerful, but it’s not infallible. And in a world where outputs can look convincing but still be completely wrong, critical thinking is the safeguard every professional needs.

The productivity trap

Many organisations rush into AI adoption with a focus on speed. How quickly can we roll this out? How much time can we save? That’s short-term thinking.

“Velocity is more important than speed,” Jack notes. “It’s not about being first to market with a shiny AI tool. It’s about building solid foundations so you can scale safely and sustainably.”

Critical thinking shifts the focus from how fast to how valuable. It asks: is this solving the right problem? Is it secure? Is it ethical? Does it actually add value for the business or customer?

Spotting the flaws

For those of us who use AI daily, spotting the flaws can feel obvious; six fingers on a generated image, or a chatbot confidently inventing a source. But as JP Browne, Practice Manager from Talent Auckland points out, it’s not always that simple:

“It’s getting harder and harder to tell what’s AI-generated. And that’s a huge risk if people stop questioning what they see.”

Critical thinkers don’t just accept outputs at face value. They test, validate, and challenge. That mindset is what prevents AI from becoming a liability instead of an asset.

Why this matters for every role

Critical thinking isn’t just for data scientists or IT leaders. It’s for recruiters screening AI-written CVs, finance teams reviewing AI-generated forecasts, and executives reading AI-drafted reports.

JP has already seen how over-reliance on automation can backfire in recruitment:

“Candidates are using AI to craft brilliant cover letters, but the CV doesn’t match the job. If you don’t apply a human lens, you’ll make bad hiring decisions.”

In other words, AI can help filter and accelerate, but without human judgment the wrong calls get made.

Building critical thinking in the AI era

So how do you make critical thinking a core skill in your team? Here are three steps:

1. Teach healthy scepticism. Encourage employees to question AI outputs, not just accept them.
2. Build human-in-the-loop processes. Always pair AI automation with human oversight where decisions impact people, money, or reputation.
3. Normalise checking sources. Whether it’s data, content, or code, make verification a cultural habit.

As Jack says:

“AI should be an enabler, not the thing doing all the work. Human judgment is what makes AI outputs valuable.”

The edge that can never be automated

The irony is that in a world obsessed with automation, the most valuable skills are the ones that can’t be automated. Curiosity. Scepticism. Judgment. Context.

Critical thinking isn’t just another “soft skill.” It’s the hardest edge businesses have in protecting themselves against AI risks and in making sure AI delivers genuine competitive advantage.

In the age of AI, the real superpower isn’t knowing how to prompt a chatbot. It’s knowing how to think critically about what it gives you. The leaders who sharpen that skill and build it across their teams will be the ones who thrive.

Find out how other organisations are navigating the changing AI landscape in our most recent AI report.

Known to many as Smallzy, Kent Small is the kind of broadcaster who makes global celebrities feel like old friends, who treats interviews as genuine conversations, and who still, after 23 years in radio, approaches his work with honest curiosity and care.

We recently sat down with Kent on the latest episode of our podcast ‘Not Just A…’ and, within minutes, it was obvious why Australia has spent decades inviting him into their cars, kitchens, and commutes.

But behind the microphone is something even more compelling: he’s a person who has spent a career learning how to stay himself in an industry that constantly tries to shape you into something else.

A radio nerd in the best way

Kent’s journey into radio began with listening.

“I used to listen as a kid, making mix tapes, recording songs off the radio,” he says. “But what was different for me is that I was more interested in what the people were saying between the songs. All my friends were like, ‘Who cares? Just play the music.’ And I was like, ‘No, I actually want to hear what the DJ has to say.’ I loved the IDs and sweepers, the production between tracks. I’d record that just to listen back.”

Kent was tuned into the banter, the personality, the little moments that made radio feel alive.

“So yeah,” he laughs. “I’m a radio nerd.”

Born for it? Maybe. But he was paying attention to these kinds of details long before he ever stepped into a studio.

The only job he’s ever had

Radio has always been Kent’s thing.

“What people need to know is that I’ve done nothing else except radio my entire career,” he says. “Apart from a great retail job… stacking CDs at Dick Smith. My casual job was putting CDs in those plastic hard lock case so no one would steal the album.”

It was a strangely perfect and ordinary origin for the future radio star, literally packaging music for other people to take home.

Kent’s first on-air gig was midnight to dawn at Nova and, for him, it was everything.

“Back then, I was so excited I’d get there at like 9pm, three hours earl,” he says. “If I was doing it again now, I’d probably roll in 10 minutes to midnight, just to make sure the mic worked and the coffee machine was on. But in those days, I was there so early just to talk three or four times an hour.”

Higher stakes, bigger consequences

These days, Kent’s world looks a little different: major networks, huge audiences, international press lines, Hollywood’s biggest names.

And with that comes pressure.

“The consequences are bigger,” he says simply.

Making a mistake at 19 on a small night show is one thing.

“Embarrassing yourself in an interview at 19 on a small night show is vastly different to sitting in front of Bradley Cooper next week and making a mistake. There are more people invested. People want outcomes.”

Not chasing headlines

Kent has interviewed just about everyone, but his approach has never been about getting a viral quote.

“I always pride myself on not being the guy chasing a headline,” he says. “My intention is to make them feel comfortable. Maybe they’ll offer something genuine.”

In a media landscape obsessed with soundbites and salacious headlines, he stays committed to authenticity over sensationalism.

One interview he mentions is the time he met Tom Cruise.

“Tom Cruise is one of the most memorable. So much gets said about him, but he’s one of the few Hollywood stars I’ve watched take the time to meet every single fan on the red carpet. He spent like three and a half hours saying hello to people. Then on the press line, where actors sometimes skip outlets… he spoke to everybody. Absolute professional.

“He does things that technically he doesn’t need to do, but everyone walks away going, ‘God, he’s a good guy.’”

Tom Cruise’s effort, respect, and showing up to events and interviews fully is especially noteworthy to Kent as that’s how he operates too.

The same person on-air and off

When asked about who he was when nobody’s watching, Kent shares that he doesn’t feel like he has two versions of himself.

“This is going to sound cliché, but I genuinely believe I’m the same person,” he says. “A lot of people put on their corporate hat when they walk into work. They leave their family, their desires, their real self at the door. I’m lucky that I do a job where they just want me. They want me as I am.”

But that comes with its own challenges as he admits he finds it difficult to conform and do what he’s told, comparing himself to golden retrievers: high energy, slightly chaotic, and needing a treat to cooperate.

His treat?

“Just praise,” he laughs. “Tell me I’m good and I will do whatever you want.”

Justice and politics

One character trait Kent says shows up strongly for him: justice.

“Justice is high for me. I get emotionally hooked when I feel like there’s injustice happening,” he says. “Someone’s been misled, lied to, manipulated, unfairly sacked… I lean into that. If I see you being critiqued for something that isn’t true, I’ll jump in.”

But he’s aware enough to know it’s a trait that can have consequences.

“Overusing or underusing any trait has consequences. Underusing justice means unjust things happen,” he explains. “Overusing it, you become a fighter, always correcting the record.”

Still, it speaks to who he is beneath his high-profile career in radio: he’s someone who cares deeply about fairness… and politics.

He shares, “I love politics. I spend my work life talking about what Taylor [Swift] had for breakfast, and then in my personal life going, ‘Did you see what happened today? What’s Trump done? What’s Albo up to?’ It’s total opposite.”

Living in the moment as he steps into KIIS

If Kent could tell his younger self one thing, it would be: “Enjoy the moment more and be present.”

Upon reflection, he acknowledges that in the early years of one’s career, you’re always chasing what’s next.

“When I look back at my early career, it was like the wild west,” he says. “You could get away with so much because the stakes were smaller. Now it’s still fun, but there’s a lot more on the line.”

And as he enters a new chapter at KIIS this year, he’s trying to take his own advice.

Not just a radio host

Kent “Smallzy” Small has built his career on compelling conversations, not only due to his ability to speak, but his ability to listen.

Not just a radio personality, he is a broadcaster who still feels excited by his craft, who cares more about people rather than viral headlines, and who shows up as his authentic self in an industry full of expectations.

He’s someone who believes curiosity is a strength, justice is a responsibility to shoulder, and feedback is only painful when ego gets in the way.

As he says, “The thing with feedback is you have to leave your ego at the door. Feedback only hurts because your ego is hurt.”

And perhaps most importantly, he reminds us that everyone is more than what we see.

“Imagine all of us are icebergs. We only show the world the 10% above the water,” he says. “But 90% of an iceberg is underneath the ocean. So we walk around only seeing the top 10% of people. But you compare your hidden 90% — your fears, insecurities, doubts — to the 10% you see of someone else. And you have no idea what’s going on underneath.”

To hear more of Kent’s story in his own words, watch the full podcast episode on our YouTube channel.