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It is unclear how many jobs will be moved to India. (AAP: Joel Carrett, file photo)

Link copiedShareShare articleThe AI joint venture (JV) connected to Telstra and consultancy, Accenture, is planning to slash 209 jobs.

The $700 million joint venture was announced early in 2025.

The purpose of the business vehicle was to improve business processes.

A JV spokesperson told the ABC, "… we spoke with the Telstra Accenture Data & AI Joint Venture (JV) team today about proposed changes to its workforce, including reducing roles where work is no longer needed, and moving some work to the JV team in India."

"These changes would see the JV use Accenture's global capabilities, advanced AI expertise and specialist hub in India to deliver Telstra's data and AI roadmap more quickly."

It is unclear how many jobs in the JV are set to be moved to India. 

In July 2025, Telstra announced it would reduce headcount by 550 Telstra Enterprise employees.

"These changes are largely driven by the ongoing reset of our Telstra Enterprise business, as well as improvements to the structure and processes of other teams across our organisation," Telstra said at the time.

The telco was clear these redundancies were not related to its investment in artificial intelligence.

The JV spokesperson told the ABC that the 209 jobs were under consideration and the final number of redundancies could be less than that.

If the changes proceed, the spokesperson said the organisation, "… will support affected team members to find redeployment opportunities either at Telstra or at Accenture where possible, or provide access to our leading career transition program and retrenchment benefits."

Independent telecommunications analyst, Paul Budde, said: "Commercial pressure is forcing telecoms companies with flat revenues to cut costs.

"AI and foreign labour are two obvious tools they can use [to achieve this].

"The question isn’t whether Telstra is investing in AI — it clearly is — but where the enduring expertise, operational control and decision-making actually sit once the build phase is over."

In other words, there will be roles in the start-up phase of the joint venture that will, by nature, become redundant once the JV reaches a certain growth stage.

"That distinction matters if Australia wants AI investments to strengthen local capability rather than primarily improve cost efficiency through global delivery models," Mr Budde said.

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