CBA launches AUD $90m AI-focused Future Workforce plan

Commonwealth Bank has outlined a $90 million plan over three years to build workforce skills, support internal mobility, and expand training linked to artificial intelligence and other capability areas.

The initiative, called the Future Workforce Program, centres on a new internal career platform that maps roles across the bank and links them to employee skills. It is designed to respond to changing work patterns and the spread of AI tools across the economy.

CEO Matt Comyn framed the investment as a priority for both staff and the business.

"Hopefully it will accelerate many people's careers within CBA," Comyn said.

Career mapping

A core element is the Grow Your Career portal, which suggests potential job moves based on an employee's current skills and experience. It also identifies gaps between an employee's profile and the requirements of other roles, and points to training options to help close them.

Every role has been mapped into the system, including Comyn's own position, according to Andrew Culleton, who leads the bank's Everyday People Services team. The portal is intended to highlight a wider range of internal opportunities than employees may realise are available.

"It says, with your skillset, with these combinations, these are all the roles that are available for you," Culleton said.

Comyn said the bank wants the platform to reshape how staff think about career progression, at a time when AI is a source of both interest and concern for many workers.

"For us it's about trying to create transparency and opportunity," Comyn said.

Skills focus

Alongside the portal, the program includes training across a range of topics, with AI a key focus. The bank said it has already delivered AI-focused learning to more than 30,000 employees.

Comyn also highlighted the ongoing importance of skills not tied to specific tools or systems. He said judgment, critical thinking, problem solving and empathy would remain central to recruitment and staff development, and that the program helps create pathways into roles where those skills matter most.

The Future Workforce Program reflects a broader shift among large employers towards skills-based models, which focus on the capabilities required for different jobs rather than job titles or linear career steps. Banks have also faced pressure to modernise as customers move to digital channels and competitors use automation and AI in areas such as service, compliance and risk.

AI adoption

Comyn said the pace and impact of AI adoption will vary across industries and organisations, driven by rapid technological development and differences in how companies and individuals implement it.

"The impact will be uneven and it's not certain what the pace will be, but we are trying to get ahead of it," Comyn said.

He also argued that organisations have historically made decisions and implemented changes before engaging workers. Commonwealth Bank's approach, he said, gives employees a more direct role in shaping their next steps, using the portal to explore moves and training, rather than waiting for traditional workforce planning cycles or management-led redeployment.

Comyn said the bank worked with unions while developing the program, describing the aim as medium-term preparation rather than immediate, large-scale workforce change.

As automation and AI investment accelerate, the bank has also been communicating more about its technology roadmap. Earlier this month, it released a report on its approach to AI adoption and progress so far. In December, it announced a partnership with OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, linked to skills development for small businesses in areas including AI and cybersecurity.

Comyn said the national dimension mattered as well as the internal workforce shift.

"Australia has to get really good at adopting this technology and whatever follows it," Comyn said. "This is a topic we have been thinking about for some time."