Australia’s ability to lift national productivity now hinges on how quickly it can build an AI-ready workforce, with leaders at the centre of the country’s skills and technology transition predicting the next two years being critical to economic uplift.
Australia’s productivity debate is increasingly defined by the speed at which organisations can build an AI-ready workforce, according to a conversation between InnovationAus.com publisher Corrie McLeod and two leaders at the head of workforce issues.
Jobs and Skills Australia commissioner Dr Barney Glover said the national skills system is still in the early stages of adjusting to AI-driven change, despite growing urgency across the economy.
Jobs and Skills Australia is focused on strengthening the alignment between post-secondary education and labour-market needs, pursuing tertiary harmonisation to ensure students can move more seamlessly between vocational and higher-education pathways.
That alignment, Dr Glover said, will be a key productivity driver. Universities and TAFEs “are attuned to the opportunities and challenges of gen AI,” he said, but the speed of adoption must increase if Australia is to match the pace set in parts of Southeast Asia.
Workday Australia & New Zealand managing director Jo-Anne Ruhl said organisations that are moving fastest on productivity gains are those that take an intentional, structured approach to AI adoption.
According to Ms Ruhl, companies need to map their business processes, understand the skills they already have, and identify where agentic AI can remove repetitive, low-value work so staff can focus on creative and innovative tasks.
She pointed to Workday’s Everyday AI internal program, which gauges employees’ baseline comfort with AI tools and then lifts capability through tailored training. Successful adoption depends on building confidence, she said, particularly given the risks of shadow IT and uncontrolled use of consumer-grade AI tools.
Both guests pointed to agentic AI – the emerging class of AI capable of initiating and completing tasks – as a major shift that will reshape entry-level roles and amplify the importance of human oversight.
Dr Glover said new workers will need strong critical-thinking capabilities, ethical reasoning, and the ability to “learn to learn”, arguing that these skills are as important as technical proficiency and are foundational to the humanities and social sciences.
But the shift is not only technical. Ms Ruhl and Dr Glover stressed that multi-generational and gender-balanced workforces will be crucial to getting the most out of AI.
Older workers bring pattern-recognition and judgement that help sense-check AI-generated outputs, while younger digital-native workers often adopt tools more quickly. Bringing these capabilities together, they argued, is essential to productivity.
The discussion also highlighted research showing women are less likely to use generative AI at work, raising concerns that unequal adoption may emerge just as human-centred skills – such as EQ, empathy and relationship management – become even more valuable.
Dr Glover said Jobs and Skills Australia’s data shows gender segregation in the workforce may leave some cohorts disproportionately exposed to AI-related disruption.
Many female-dominated occupations are among those most likely to experience automation or high levels of augmentation. Without targeted support, women may be more mobile between roles that are all under similar pressure.
He said the organisation’s recommendations call for ongoing national data collection, rather than point-in-time snapshots, to track these effects and identify where support is most urgently needed.
Both leaders agreed that Australia must accelerate national upskilling efforts. Dr Glover said the country should mirror the urgency emerging in neighbouring economies, where governments are investing heavily in broad-based AI training.
A Jobs and Skills Australia study on foundation skills – literacy, numeracy, digital capability and AI literacy – will be released next year, underscoring the scale of the uplift required.
Ms Ruhl added that the broader system needs a consistent national skills taxonomy so that schools, training providers and employers can align on what AI-era skills actually are and how to measure them.
The guests agreed the next two years will set the trajectory for Australia’s productivity potential.
“Everything else depends on” national uplift in digital and AI capability, Dr Glover said, while Ms Ruhl argued that clarity on skills and structured frameworks for adoption will determine whether organisations can translate AI into real performance gains.
Produced by InnovationAus.com in partnership with Workday.
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