The Numbers
Australia's first federal AI employment report landed this week. The data: jobs exposed to AI grew 5.6% since ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Jobs less exposed to AI grew 9.5%. That is a gap, not a cliff.
Software development roles surged 25% in the same period. Youth employment (20-24 year olds) grew slightly faster than older workers. Unemployment sits at 4.4% as of May 2026. The labour market is holding.
What This Means for Sales
If you are an AE, AM, or sales leader, here is what matters: AI is not gutting headcount. It is shifting where companies hire.
Clerical and admin roles (the people who used to handle your CRM data entry, proposal formatting, contract processing) are seeing slower growth. That work is moving to automation. If your comp depends on internal support teams, watch for changes in how your org structures operations.
For sales roles specifically: the report shows no acceleration in occupational reshuffling. Companies are not firing SDRs and replacing them with AI. They are adding AI tools to SDR workflows and hiring fewer new SDRs per dollar of ARR growth. Different problem.
Telemarketing roles are showing early decline signals. Worth noting: outbound call-based prospecting has been dying for years. AI is accelerating what was already happening.
The Context
This is the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations' first comprehensive AI employment study. They are establishing a monitoring framework, which means more data is coming. The report covers November 2022 to February 2026, capturing the initial ChatGPT wave through early 2026.
Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth framed it as AI creating opportunities, not destroying jobs. That is the political line. The actual data is more useful: slower growth in exposed roles, robust hiring in tech and software, youth employment resilient.
What to Watch
For sales professionals making career decisions: this is not a signal to panic. It is a signal to track where your company is adding headcount versus where it is adding tools. If your sales org is hiring more sales engineers and fewer SDRs, that is the AI effect. If comp plans are shifting toward fewer, higher-value deals because automation is handling high-volume transactional work, that is the AI effect.
The report confirms what most ANZ sales leaders already see: AI is changing how teams are structured, not whether they exist. Track the comp and headcount changes at your company. That will tell you more than any federal report.