In February 2026, WiseTech Global — the Australian logistics software giant whose CargoWise platform processes an estimated 75% of worldwide customs transaction data — announced it would eliminate approximately 2,000 jobs across 40 countries. Nearly a third of its 7,000-person workforce was told their roles might disappear in a two-year restructuring to integrate AI.

The announcement came on the same day the company reported first-half profits that beat market expectations. CEO Zubin Appoo was blunt: "The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over." Some projects that once took six or seven months could now be completed in a single day.

But what really ignited the workforce was a comment from billionaire founder Richard White at a Macquarie Bank investment conference. "It doesn't take much effort to convince people, in the end, that they're stupid to be paying $100 for labour when you can pay $2 for the AI," he told the audience.

The words spread through internal channels within hours.

What followed was months of agonizing uncertainty. Consultation deadlines were repeatedly extended. Union emails went unanswered. Workers were told to keep delivering as usual while simultaneously helping roll out the AI tools that would replace them. "People are being told to keep delivering as usual, while also helping deploy the AI tools that are supposedly meant to replace them," one employee told The Guardian. "All of this while everyone's left waiting to find out if they're in the 50%."

Internal communications suggested white-collar roles could be automated within 18 months. Over 590 employees — more than half of WiseTech's Australian technical workforce — signed a petition calling for fair redundancy packages and genuine consultation. According to the union, their concerns were largely ignored. Widespread reports emerged of stress, sleeplessness, and declining mental health.

The dam finally broke when a Sydney-based software engineer posted publicly on Microsoft Teams: "This delay is likely to have a severe impact on many of our colleagues who are already deeply affected by the extremely drawn-out process we find ourselves in. These are real lives and families being affected. We are human."

Paul Inglis, Director at Professionals Australia, the union representing the workers, was unsparing: "This is what AI disruption looks like on the ground, and workers are terrified."

On Sunday evening, May 24, the situation took a dark turn. White emailed all staff to reveal that the turmoil had escalated into "a hand-written threat of violence made against our CEO, Zubin Appoo, containing personal information and offensive comments directed at members of his family." Police were notified. Security at the Sydney office was upgraded.

The vast majority of employees, White wrote, "would be horrified." But the conditions that allowed such escalation — anxiety without transparency, anger without outlet, prolonged uncertainty punctuated by provocative executive comments — were all too predictable.