According to Indeed, graduate job postings fell 15 per cent in 2025 year-on-year in Australia, down 35 per cent from 2023, with fears AI is replacing junior workers. <\/p>\n
Ms Lindsay said she felt \u201cripped off\u201d with universities failing to prepare students for the reality of the AI market. <\/p>\n
She said students were told not to use AI and instead trained in outdated programs that would soon be overtaken by AI models. <\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially, they\u2019re not acknowledging how AI exists,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like \u2026 this is how we\u2019ve always done it, so this is how we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Lindsay completed a Bachelor of Design in Product Design after deciding to switch from architecture, which she studied in her first year. <\/p>\n
She said half of the course was spent training students in computer-aided design programs which are now being taken over by AI. <\/p>\n
During her first internship while she was still studying, Ms Lindsay said she was immediately told to \u201cjust use AI\u201d on projects \u2013 something she had never been trained in. <\/p>\n
The program students were trained in costs $2000 for an individual license, which could explain the reluctance to adapt, she said.<\/p>\n
Yet ironically, Ms Lindsay counts herself as one of the lucky ones, as she is still living at home and working in a pet store. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, when we\u2019re paying so much money (for a degree), it\u2019s not really good enough \u2026 [the university] needs to keep up,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really annoying \u2026 we spend all this time and all this money, learning those skills that will eventually become almost obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to news.com.au, Faculty of Design and Society Dean professor James Bennett said the degree had been updated in recent years to include more AI skills.<\/p>\n
However, he said the university wanted to teach students \u201cdurable human skills\u201d so they can \u201ccontextualise the value of AI-generated solutions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe aim to teach our graduates creative and critical thinking, interpretation and reasoning \u2013 these are core to product design and they are the skills employers tell us are far more valuable than just technical understanding of AI,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
AI taking over after school jobs, graduate roles <\/p>\n
In September, a report released by the Australian Association of Graduate Employers revealed one in seven employers said AI was influencing the number of early career roles available within their organisation. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year, law firm MinterEllison became the first major Australian practice to cut its graduate cohort due to AI. <\/p>\n
The firm cut its graduate numbers by almost a third from the previous year \u2013 from 100 to 72.<\/p>\n
In March, PwC Australia, which has cut entry-level roles by 6 per cent, announced it would be looking for half of its 2027 graduate intake to come from non-accounting backgrounds in response to AI. <\/p>\n
Nic Rothquel, the founder of Alchemy Tuition, which employs about 2000 tutors across Australia, said he is receiving more applications from young Aussies than ever. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur sweet spot for a tutor is about [age] 18 to 23 \u2026 and we had about 10,000 applications last year of just people wanting to tutor with us,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Mr Rothquel said teenagers are struggling to find employment during school and university and after graduating in the age of AI, and are turning to tutoring as a result. <\/p>\n
Last year, fast-food giant Hungry Jack\u2019s began trialling the use of AI drive-through<\/a> assistants, starting with their St Peters store in Sydney, with McDonald\u2019s following suit last month<\/a> with an AI trial at its Schofields store in Sydney\u2019s west. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a wild time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cYou go to McDonald\u2019s or Burger King, and they\u2019ve got an AI person taking your orders, or you\u2019re touching a screen.<\/p>\n \u201cJust dealing with difficult customers and trying to solve problems \u2026 they\u2019re just such crucial life skills that I feel so many young people are going to miss out on now because of the introduction of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n GP AI receptionist trial <\/p>\n The replacement of entry-level jobs is not just being adopted by commercial businesses. <\/p>\n The federal government is also seemingly trialling the deletion of junior roles in one major industry \u2013 at the cost of $140,000 to taxpayers. <\/p>\n In a tender obtained by news.com.au in September, the Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network (HNECC PHN) called on GP clinics to participate in a 12-month pilot program to adopt \u201cAI-enabled patient communication and reception tools\u201d. <\/p>\n The 14 chosen clinics will each receive $10,000 for their participation from the PHN, which is funded by the federal government. <\/p>\n \u201cThe initiative will explore how AI can support routine administrative tasks such as phone calls, appointment booking and rescheduling, reminders, follow-ups, FAQs, after-hours inquiries and escalation to practice staff where required,\u201d the expression of interest states. <\/p>\n In a statement to news.com.au, the PHN said the AI tools would still \u201crequire appropriate human oversight\u201d and were intended to \u201ccomplement, not replace, the work of practice staff\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cBy automating routine administrative tasks, these tools can improve efficiency and enable staff to focus more time on patient-centred care,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n The Department of Health said that while the federal government funds the PHN, decisions about grants \u201care the responsibility of individual PHNs\u201d. <\/p>\n Dr Liliana Laranjo, who is an associate professor in digital health at the University of Sydney, said she was concerned at the rate of AI entering into clinical settings without the appropriate safeguards. <\/p>\n About 40 per cent of Australian GPs are now using generative AI in Australia for notetaking.<\/p>\n \u201cA GP receptionist is not just answering the phone,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cThey can be the first person to recognise that a patient needs urgent medical attention.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the patient is asking for an appointment on the same day because they have chest pain and the AI does not recognise that as an potentially emergent situation that needs to be referred to ED, then that\u2019s a problem.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n