WiseTech Removes 'AI' from Layoff Notice for China

Australian software company WiseTech laid off about 2,000 people (30% of its total 7,000 employees) across 40 countries worldwide, using a dual-messaging strategy depending on region. In the layoff notice sent by CEO Zubin Appoo, the global team's notice explicitly cited "AI transformation" as the reason for the layoffs, but for the China office, the wording was changed to "global transformation", completely removing any mention of AI.

This appears to be related to a recent precedent in which a Chinese court ruled that 53,000 AUD (about 47 million KRW) in compensation must be paid to an employee replaced by AI. WiseTech employees are demanding an explanation from management on internal message boards as to whether this deliberate change in wording was due to legal risk in China.

China has recently been moving toward legally sanctioning workforce replacement caused by AI automation, showing that global companies are becoming extremely cautious about how they word official documents related to AI in the Chinese market.