Qantas denies 1,000 job outsourcing reports AI strategy faces workforce scrutiny. By Denham Sadler on Aug 05 2026 08:39 PM Print article Qantas is in discussion with Accenture over an AI partnership. Photo: Shutterstock Qantas has denied reports it is considering outsourcing up to 1,000 jobs as part of a potential artificial intelligence deal with consulting firm Accenture. The Australian airline is in “advanced discussions” to outsource the jobs to India across marketing, finance, human resources and other back-office functions, according to the Australian Financial Review. The initiative – dubbed ‘Project iQ’ – could see up to 1,000 roles outsourced to India Qantas has confirmed it is in discussions with Accenture but denied job losses are on the cards. In a statement, a Qantas spokesperson confirmed to Information Age the company was in discussions to enter a tech partnership, but no decision had been made. “Like all organisations, Qantas has been looking at ways to accelerate the use of technology and AI to help us modernise the way we work and deliver better outcomes for our customers and our people,” the spokesperson said. “We have been exploring partnerships that have the capability to support us and are in early discussions with Accenture, but no formal agreement is in place and no decisions have been made.” Union concerns The Australian Services Union (ASU) said Qantas had assured it there were no plans to cut or offshore Australian jobs as part of any agreement. “What matters is that Qantas has informed that there is no plan to offshore any Australian jobs, and we demand the airline stay true to these commitments,” ASU National Secretary Scott Cowen said. “If that commitment from Qantas turns out to be worthless, it won’t just be a broken promise to the ASU. “It will be a deep breach of trust with the Australian public who have stuck by this airline through everything it has put them through.” Qantas said the company had added “thousands of operational roles” in Australia in recent years. “We also have a technology hub opening in Adelaide next month, with more than 400 roles to be based there,” the spokesperson said. The partnership would see Qantas utilise Accenture’s expertise in AI to reform its head office functions and allow the airline to instead hire customer-facing roles. Telstra’s deal Qantas would not be the first Australian company to partner with Accenture on a major AI transformation. Telstra entered a $700 million partnership with the consulting firm early last year, creating a joint venture to "rapidly accelerate data and the AI roadmap". The venture is developing AI tools to support Telstra employees and "reinvent business processes through new capabilities like agentic AI, enabling teams to work with intelligent AI ecosystems to optimise key tasks end-to-end". The joint venture is 60 per cent owned by Accenture and 40 per cent owned by Telstra. Its rollout led to the axing of thousands of positions at the telco. Earlier this year, Telstra announced another 200 jobs at the joint venture would be cut, with some roles relocated to India. The reported Qantas discussions come as AI-driven workforce changes continue to attract scrutiny. Last month Australia’s privacy watchdog announced it would not investigate Qantas over a data breach last year that compromised the personal information of more than 5 million Australians. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner found no breach of privacy law despite some of the stolen data later appearing on the dark web. The roll out of AI within an organisation has been blamed for many large-scale layoffs this year. According to a report published in March, tech firms laid off nearly 4,500 workers in the first three months of the year, with every cut attributed to the advent of AI. But a first-of-its-kind government report in July found “no evidence to date of broad labour market upheaval” in Australia as a result of generative AI, and no proof of “large AI-driven job loss”. Denham Sadler Denham Sadler is a freelance journalist based in Melbourne. He was previously Editor of StartupSmart, and writes on tech and politics. His work has been published in The Saturday Paper and The Guardian. Tags: qantas jobs ai accenture