{"id":842765,"date":"2026-08-04T03:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T03:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/842765\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T03:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T03:22:15","slug":"qantas-project-iq-airline-considers-moving-1000-back-office-roles-to-india-in-potential-accenture-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/842765\/","title":{"rendered":"Qantas project IQ: Airline considers moving 1000 back-office roles to India in potential Accenture deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Updated August 4, 2026 \u2014 9:42am,first published 7:49am<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

AAA<\/p>\n

Qantas is considering outsourcing up to 1000 roles to India as part of a deal with consulting giant Accenture that looks to harness the power of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

The airline on Tuesday confirmed it was in discussions with Accenture over an outsourcing deal and it would consider shifting jobs in marketing, finance, human resources and other back-office positions. The Australian Services Union, however, said it had been told by the airline that no job losses were being considered.<\/p>\n

The potential deal involving up to 1000 roles was first reported<\/a> by The Australian Financial Review, but Qantas did not confirm how many jobs could be affected.<\/p>\n

\"QantasQantas CEO Vanessa Hudson has stressed the growing importance of the use of technology at the airline.Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A Qantas spokesperson said the airline was \u201clooking 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.\u201d The changes are part of a plan called Project iQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been exploring partnerships that have the capability to support us and are in early-stage discussions with Accenture, but no formal agreement is in place and no decisions have been made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Justice<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have added thousands of operational roles in Australia in the past few years, including pilots … and engineers, and will hire thousands more over the coming years,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

A final decision on the plan has not been made, a spokesperson said. Accenture referred questions to Qantas.<\/p>\n

The airline is seeking to harness AI to increase efficiencies and cut costs. In February, Qantas and the Australian Services Union clashed over job security amid a round of job cuts linked to new technology used at the airline\u2019s Sydney headquarters.<\/p>\n

In May, at a media roundtable, chief executive Vanessa Hudson said the company had no limits in how it was considering using AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the right thing to only think about the value that AI can give is only through headcount reduction,\u201d Hudson said, who added that the technology can help drive better selling techniques in the channels \u201cthat our customers want to shop in\u201d.<\/p>\n

In aviation, AI is useful in anticipating the maintenance needs of planes, which allows for a more efficient fleet usage. It is already integrated into the Airbus Skywise predictive maintenance system used by Qantas and Jetstar.<\/p>\n

\"AA final decision on the plan is expected this year.Louise Kennerley<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the amount of use cases that we see for AI right now…We\u2019ve got more use cases than we think that we can actually execute on in the short term,\u201d Hudson told the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very excited about what AI does, but…it\u2019s not accurate to just think about it through the lens of head count.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAI can deliver a lot of value in other ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian Services Union says Qantas told it there are no plans for jobs to be lost under a potential deal with Accenture. Nevertheless, the ASU is calling on Qantas to commit to genuine consultation with affected workers before any final decision on Project iQ.<\/p>\n

ASU Assistant National Secretary Scott Cowen said today\u2019s reporting is a huge concern to the union\u2019s members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s been reported today is that the airline is considering a proposal by Accenture, that\u2019s not in dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Cowen said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Alan<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf that commitment from Qantas turns out to be worthless, it won\u2019t 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ASU said Qantas has a history of outsourcing and offshoring Australian jobs. Any move to replace skilled head office staff with automation or AI will damage the airline\u2019s operational capacity, the ASU said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will fight to protect all Australian jobs at the airline. We\u2019ll be watching closely, and we\u2019ll work tirelessly to ensure that Australian consumers can rely on the high-quality services, provided by the Qantas workforce here at home,\u201d Cowen said.<\/p>\n

Early last year, the airline opened a new product innovation centre in Adelaide to better design the digital experiences of airline customers.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, Qantas announced a reduction in its group leadership team size as part of an effort to simplify structure. The changes reduced up to 400 roles across the company\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

The aviation sector faces higher structural cost, driven by the oil crunch in the Middle East, as well as the drive to gain efficiencies sparked by the rollout of new technology such as AI.<\/p>\n

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Zappone<\/a> is a senior reporter covering aviation and business. He is former digital foreign editor.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated August 4, 2026 \u2014 9:42am,first published 7:49am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-842765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}