Skill up or risk your job, NAB boss tells white-collar workers

National Australia Bank boss Andrew Irvine has warned that white-collar workers who don’t learn to use artificial intelligence will ultimately be at risk of being replaced by more tech-savvy employees, likening the rise of AI to technological revolutions such as the invention of the steam engine.

Irvine, speaking at a NAB customer event in Melbourne on Wednesday, said he believed AI was a massive change for society on par with technological upheavals of the past, such as the move from the horse and carriage to steam trains, or electrification.

When asked about how this could affect career development, his key message was that people should learn new skills to adapt.

NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong

At the same time, he said there would still be a need for workers to perform jobs that could not be automated, such as those in construction or the fast-growing “care economy”.

“AI is not going to take away the people’s jobs. People using AI are going to take the jobs of people not using AI,” Irvine said, and then repeated the comment for emphasis.

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“Everyone has to go into this and think about the agents that they need to set up around them to make them more effective and more productive in work ... we’ve got to get people to not have fear to try, to learn, to move into this.”

Irvine said the situation was similar to when the internet and computers became widespread several decades ago.

“Lots of people had fear about computers and the internet and mobility. I remember my grandfather having to deal with that … you know, 20 years ago, but you have to because … people need to learn new skills, and lifelong learning is becoming a more important part of career.”

Despite AI, Irvine said he was not worried about a lack of jobs for the workforce – pointing to manual work in areas such as construction, and the “care economy”.

“We need hundreds of thousands more people building stuff, and it’s going to be a long time before robots are building our houses or a robot is fixing the toilet,” he said.

‘The type of work people are doing is going to change and there’ll be less white-collar work for people who don’t like using AI. In fact, there may be very little of that.’

“We need people in the care economy, so I’m not worried that we’re not going have enough jobs for our workforce, but the type of work people are doing is going to change and there’ll be less white-collar work for people who don’t like using AI. In fact, there may be very little of that.”

Irvine was speaking alongside NAB’s business banking boss Andrew Auerbach and the group executive in charge of corporate and institutional banking, Cathryn Carver.

Auerbach, who previously worked with Irvine in Canada, took the reins running business and private banking at NAB in June, replacing former executive Rachel Slade.

One analyst said he was an unknown quantity when he was appointed, but Auerbach emphasised his experience in business banking in Canada, which he said was a similar market to Australia.

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In an interview after the panel, Auerbach noted the similarities in the two countries’ banking markets (Canada has five major banks, for example), and said the “common thread” in his career had been working with business owners. As well as running Bank of Montreal’s business bank for seven years, Auerbach also founded a wealth management business in Canada.

“The business bank I ran was a very large business bank ... one of the biggest in North America, and so, yes I am very proud of my wealth management background as well, and I would remind everybody I run a wealth management business here too,” he said.

NAB is facing growing competition in business banking from the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac, which this week said it planned to hire 350 bankers over the next two years as part of its expansion plans for the market.

Auerbach said NAB wanted to “dramatically simplify” its processes to make it easier for bankers to do their jobs, and AI would play a key role in that.

He said NAB’s business bank was a “phenomenal business” and he was intent on expanding it. “Priority number one is we are going to continue to grow and protect our business bank,” he said.

NAB’s latest quarterly results – which included 4 per cent loan growth from the business bank – has been well received by the market, and Auerbach said the business was “continuing to see great momentum”.

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