WiseTech to cut 2,000 jobs or 30% of workforce in shift to AI, says ‘era of writing code is over’

SYDNEY – WiseTech Global plans to cut about 2,000 jobs – almost 30 per cent of its workforce – under an AI-driven revamp, crystallising efficiencies from artificial intelligence that are upending the global software industry.

In a candid and full-blooded embrace of AI, chief executive Zubin Appoo on Feb 25 laid out what he said were unprecedented benefits for the freight software provider.

The cuts to WiseTech’s 7,000-strong workforce are the largest and deepest in Australia attributable to AI, where companies such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia are also displacing humans with AI. 

“This marks one of the most important inflection points in our 30-plus year history,” Mr Appoo said on a conference call. 

AI means greater productivity, in less time, from fewer people, he said. The company’s cost base will be stripped bare and the economics of software development reshaped. In some parts of the workforce such as customer service, one in two workers will disappear, Mr Appoo added. 

“I am prepared to say this clearly: The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over,” he said. AI is “unlocking levels of efficiency gains across WiseTech that were previously out of reach”.

WiseTech shares jumped as much as 11 per cent in early Sydney trading on Feb 25. Before the rebound, the stock had slumped 37 per cent in 2026, hammered by concerns that AI will make the company’s freight software redundant.

The mass job cuts come just days after a little-known firm called Citrini Research reignited the “AI scare trade” by mapping out a hypothetical future scenario that included large-scale AI-led corporate disruption, mass unemployment, software-backed loan defaults and economic contraction.

Beyond Australia, companies the world over are increasingly citing AI as a driver that allows them to eliminate staff and reduce hiring. Software developers could be among those most impacted, with advanced AI capable of handling tasks such as coding that have been traditionally performed by people.

In Britain, companies reported that AI led to 8 per cent net job losses over the past year, a Morgan Stanley study showed in January. It was the highest level in a group that included German, American, Japanese and Australian firms.

During WiseTech’s conference call, Mr Appoo said AI would allow WiseTech to offer more value, and to embed its products deeper into customers’ operations. The job cuts will be made this fiscal year and next.

His presentation depicted a future in which people with specialist skills and knowledge are still key, but with swarms of AI agents overseen by humans.

WiseTech creates software that helps companies from shippers to logistics firms plan and manage the flow of goods around the world, from tracking containers to dealing with customs. 

Mr Appoo did concede that AI threatens other software businesses that charge by the number of users, but that the risk did not apply to WiseTech. The company’s software is at the centre of global trade and logistics and cannot itself be replaced, he said. “It’s not an overlay.”

Under what WiseTech calls a “deep AI transformation”, workers in product and development, and customer service, will be the first to go, including US-based E2open, which WiseTech bought in 2025 in its biggest-ever acquisition.

Other roles will be targeted in 2027, the company said.

WiseTech’s underlying net profit climbed 2 per cent to A$114.5 million (S$102.8 million) in the six months ended Dec 31. Total revenue surged 76 per cent to A$672 million, including a five-month contribution from E2open. On an organic basis, sales grew 7 per cent.

Before the so-called AI scare trade smashed WiseTech, the company had also endured a tumultuous period of allegations, first raised in late 2024, about the conduct of then CEO and founder Richard White.

Mr Appoo was named CEO in July 2025 partly to address investors’ governance concerns. Mr White is now WiseTech’s chairman. BLOOMBERG