👋 Good Tuesday morning!

I'm writing to you from the sunny Gold Coast. Last night I presented at Ausmed's "Building Workforce Capability with AI" event to 100+ providers—a fantastic event, and thanks to Ausmed for having me. A big part of the conversation was about AI's impact on our workforce, so I've decided to dedicate today's newsletter to exploring how AI will reshape our workforce—from white-collar professionals to care workers.

Every transformative technology changes jobs. When cars replaced horse-drawn carriages, coachmen lost work—but mechanics, taxi drivers, and entire industries emerged. Most new technologies cause short-term pain but later create new jobs. 

We're entering that pain phase with AI.The CEO of Walmart said that AI is going to “change literally every job”, and Anthropic (the company behind Claude) expects that AI will wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years. As if on a cue, consulting company Accenture (who have offices in Australia as well), are planning on ‘exiting’ staff who can’t be reskilled on AI. 

But unlike the coachmen of the past, we now get advanced warning. So let's dive deeper and examine how we can learn from the past and proactively shape our workforce's (and our own) future.

What we cover this week:

• Youth employment down 13% due to AI — is this the canary in the coal mine?

• AI set to outperform humans in most admin tasks

• Four skills to future-proof your career in aged care

• Free webinar on intrapreneurship and innovation in aged care

• A practical guide to using NotebookLM for research and content creation

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🐥 Canaries in the coal mine? Facts about the recent employment effects of AI

New research provides compelling evidence that AI is significantly affecting youth employment. Since late 2022, early-career workers have experienced a 13% decline in employment compared to older workers in similar roles, who saw employment growth of 6–9%.

Using payroll data from tens of thousands of US firms, researchers examined labour market changes in occupations exposed to generative AI. Here are the key findings:

The decline hits hardest where AI replaces rather than assists workers — particularly in customer support roles where automation dominates over augmentation.

Experience trumps education — The data suggests AI substitutes for theoretical knowledge but not practical expertise. This makes real-world experience and professional judgement increasingly valuable commodities.

Firms favour hiring freezes over redundancies — At least for the time being, companies appear to be managing technological transitions through recruitment pauses rather than salary cuts or layoffs.

The broader job market reflects this trend — According to Indeed, overall job postings dropped 7% in August compared to the previous year. Notably, this decline matches exactly the drop in entry-level job listings, suggesting the impact on new graduates and early-career workers isn't just sector-specific but market-wide.

Of course, we cannot be entirely certain whether these findings signal lasting structural change or a transitional period as companies determine how AI fits into their operations. What’s clear however, is that AI is already transforming employment patterns, and the impact is now showing up in the data.

⚠️ Bad news, good news: AI's impact on aged care workers

OpenAI just introduced GDPval, a new benchmark that measures whether AI models can match professional work quality across 44 occupations, including compliance officers, recreation workers, nurses, office supervisors, admin support workers, social workers, and medical secretaries. 

The details:

• GDPval evaluated 1,320 tasks created by professionals averaging 14 years of experience across 9 economic sectors, including healthcare.

• The best AI model achieved the highest scores with a 47.6% win rate (50% indicates parity with an industry expert)

• AI’s performance tripled over 15 months, so it is safe to assume that we’re not long from when AI meets and surpasses the 50% parity. 

The future of work for (us) white-collar workers in aged care

AI's impact on white-collar aged care roles is accelerating rapidly. Industry leaders predict AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white collar jobs within five years, and current research (and AI capabilities) support this trajectory. 

A large workforce study on AI automation surveyed 1,500 workers across 104 occupations, revealing a significant appetite for automating routine admin tasks like appointment scheduling, data entry, and report generation. Current AI development sometimes misses what workers actually need, but the technology's trajectory is clear—our operations landscape will transform significantly.

Better news for our care workers 

When asked which roles AI will never be able to replace on a German TV interview, Sam Altman (the CEO of the company behind ChatGPT) talked about human care. This is indeed very good news for our care workers—their core purpose and value will endure. However, the way they perform their jobs will inevitably change as many routine tasks become automated. The challenge and opportunity ahead lies in upskilling and re-skilling our care workforce to effectively use these new tools of the trade. 

The reality is that care workers will need to adapt their skill sets to work alongside these new technologies, but their fundamental role in providing direct human care remains secure in ways that administrative roles do not.

🦾 The four skills to future-proof your work 

The problem is that governments are slow to address the implications of significant change on society - let alone AI and its widespread job displacement, especially as AI is moving so fast. But, as I mentioned in the newsletter intro, unlike the coachmen of the past, we now get advanced warning of the changes that AI will bring. Last week, I watched an interview with ex-Google executive Mo Gawdat, where he summarised the four skills we need to focus on:

• Learn to use AI properly - Use AI for deep research and workflow augmentation, not just simple tasks like writing emails. The good news is that training works: a new study found AI-exposed workers who completed government-funded programs earned $1,470 more per quarter than comparable job seekers. 

• Develop human connection - Focus on genuine human-to-human relationships and interactions, which become more valuable as machines handle routine work. We have a little advantage in aged care, as our ability to build trust and support people through change becomes incredibly valuable.

• Learn to find the truth - Develop critical thinking skills, seek opposing viewpoints, and double check information you receive.

• Teach AI ethics - This one sounds weird, but it's important. AI learns by watching how humans behave online. If we're rude or dishonest in our digital interactions, AI learns that's normal. Show the ethical standards you want technology to copy.

Our sector has always been about human values - compassion, care, ethics. These become even more important as technology advances.

^COMMUNITY

👥 FREE WEBINAR | Intrapreneurs of Care: The Opportunity for Innovation Adoption in Aged Care and Community Sectors

 📅 Tuesday 14 October 2025, 10.30–11.30am (AEST)
📍 Online | Hosted by AI Adoption in Aged Care 

As aged care environments face rapid change, technology alone isn't the answer. The key to sustainable innovation lies in unlocking the passion and purpose of your team.

Join Dr Tim Mahlberg Sie, organisational psychologist and founder of The Village at NAB, as he presents a human-centred approach to change. Drawing on his expertise in building innovation communities, Tim will share practical stories and strategies for fostering a culture where every staff member can become an "intrapreneur"—empowered to identify problems, leverage technology, and drive meaningful change.

This webinar is essential for leaders who want to move beyond top-down mandates and build genuinely resilient, innovative organisations that put people at the centre of transformation.

👉 Register Here

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🧩 NotebookLM in action: A practical guide for research and content creation.

Solan Sync has released a practical guide to Google’s NotebookLM, an experimental AI research assistant that works with PDFs, Google Workspace files, web links, and YouTube videos.

The guide outlines key functions:

• Generating slideshow-style videos (rendering takes 20–30 minutes)

• Producing podcast-style discussions

• Creating flashcards and mind maps

• Analysing diverse content, from books to Reddit threads

NotebookLM is most effective for research synthesis and educational content creation. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude remain stronger for original writing and creative ideation. The guide includes clear setup steps, outlines strengths and limitations, and offers realistic use cases for those exploring AI-assisted learning and content analysis.

I’m not here to hype trends. I’m here to explore the changes shaping ageing—technology included—and to share ideas you can apply in practice. Whether you’re exploring new tools, rethinking services, or looking ahead to what’s coming, I hope you found something here worth your time.

Feel free to forward this to your network or share it with your team.

See you next Tuesday,
George