Qantas outsources 850 roles to Accenture in AI overhaul

Qantas will move about 850 corporate roles to technology company Accenture, with most of the work to be done in India. The airline told staff on Tuesday (10 November 2026) that it needs to overhaul its back-end systems as technology and AI change the industry.

Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson announced the deal in an email to staff. She said the cuts would be phased in over several years.

“We expect around 850 roles to be affected over the coming years, with the first changes expected to be in place by mid-2027,” Hudson said.

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Why Qantas is turning to Accenture

In a statement, Qantas said the partnership would overhaul its back-end systems, processes, and data in response to “the pace of change in technology and AI globally”.

“The partnership will redesign and simplify how parts of the group’s corporate functions operate,” the statement said.

According to the airline, some services will move to Accenture, “delivered mostly by its teams in India and some in Australia, and in time be transformed further with automation and AI”.

In her email, Hudson said the speed of change was without precedent.

“The scale and speed of change in technology and AI is something none of us has seen in our lifetime,” she wrote. “Standing still is not an option for us.”

She said Qantas needed to “reinvent the processes, platforms and data behind our business so we can innovate faster and deliver a better, more connected experience for our customers and our people”.

“That means fundamentally redesigning how the work behind our airline gets done, so it is simpler, more connected and keeps getting better, with automation and AI built in from the start,” Hudson said. “Accenture has a global track record of doing this work for large organisations, including other airlines.”

Qantas said it spends more than $1 billion a year on technology. That includes its new Qantas Product Innovation Centre in Adelaide, which the airline said will grow to more than 400 roles. It also said thousands of employees already use AI tools in their daily work.

Reports of talks with Accenture first surfaced in August, when representatives travelled to India for discussions.

Impact on staff

Hudson told staff the cuts were “hard news for some” and apologised for the uncertainty.

“While there are important reasons behind today’s news, I know that doesn’t make the impact on our people any easier,” she wrote.

“We know this will be difficult news for some of our people and this decision is not a reflection on their contribution or commitment.”

Announcement follows ground staff strikes

The announcement comes weeks after Qantas ground workers walked off the job in October at airports in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. The strikers said their careers had been turned into “scraps of poorly paid, unsafe work”.

The industrial action involved workers who service, maintain, and manage aircraft and help passengers on the ground. Pilots and cabin crew were not involved. Most of the strikers worked in Qantas freight transfer, so commercial passenger flights were largely unaffected.

Offshoring among Australian corporates

Qantas joins other Australian companies planning to move corporate roles offshore, including Woolworths and Coles. National Australia Bank (NAB) has announced plans to hire more than 1,000 staff in Vietnam and India.

Boeing cuts 5% of commercial workforce

Separately, Boeing told its Boeing Commercial Aeroplanes (BCA) division that it will cut staff by 5% after resetting its production rate. That works out to about 2,500 jobs.

In a note to staff, BCA President and CEO Stephanie Pope said slowing production would give “our factories and supply chain partners additional time to achieve stability”.

“Adjusting our production schedules and reducing aircraft output puts us in an overstaffed position,” Pope said.

The cuts will come through “a combination of involuntary lay-offs and attrition, with notifications beginning in December”.

“I know how difficult these actions are and the impact they will have on all of us, our families and our communities,” Pope said.