The Qantas Group has signed a strategic partnership with Accenture to modernise its back-end systems, processes and data, as it steps up investment in technology and AI alongside the largest fleet renewal in its history.
This comes as the airline responds to the pace of change in technology and AI globally, which is rapidly transforming how businesses operate, what customers expect and how people do their jobs. Like every airline, Qantas runs on technology built up over decades for a different era, including more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together. Modernising these systems and connecting the data across them is the critical next step to remove complexity, unlock innovation and accelerate the Group's use of AI, with lasting benefits across the business.
The partnership with Accenture builds on significant work already underway, with the airline investing more than $1 billion in technology each year, including through the new Qantas Product Innovation Centre in Adelaide, which is set to grow to more than 400 roles, and thousands of employees are already using AI tools in their daily work.
A global leader in technology and AI transformation, Accenture brings tens of thousands of data and AI specialists, a talent pipeline through partnerships with leading universities, and access to its innovation teams in Silicon Valley. The multi-year partnership will help the Group move faster and at greater scale than it could on its own.
The partnership will redesign and simplify how parts of the Group's corporate functions operate. Some of the services they provide will move to Accenture, delivered mostly by its teams in India and some in Australia, and in time be transformed further with automation and AI.
To deliver this, Accenture will invest upfront to accelerate the modernisation of the Group's data platforms. While this is integral to delivering benefits to the corporate functions, this modernisation will unlock enterprise-wide value, including across the customer experience and the operation, and lay the foundations to innovate faster with AI.
Around 850 roles at the Qantas Group are expected to be affected over the coming years. Qantas will consult with affected employees and their unions before individual outcomes are determined. The first wave of changes are expected to be in place by mid-2027.
Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said the partnership was about building a more modern, competitive organisation and preparing the business for the future.
"The scale and speed of change in this space is unprecedented and unlike anything businesses have seen in generations. Leading organisations around the world are well progressed in using technology and AI to completely transform how they work, and standing still is not an option for us," said Ms Hudson.
"We need to reinvent the processes, platforms and data behind our business so we can innovate faster and deliver a better, more connected experience for our customers and our people. That means fundamentally redesigning how the work behind our airline gets done, so it is simpler, more connected and keeps getting better, with automation and AI built in from the start.
"Accenture has a global track record of doing this work for large organisations, including other airlines. It brings the capability and talent to design this hand-in-hand with us and the capacity to help us deliver it.
"We know this will be difficult news for some of our people and this decision is not a reflection of their contribution or commitment. We are focused on providing redeployment into other roles across the Group where possible, including new roles we're creating in Australia, as well as on reskilling, retraining and ongoing support and care."
With the largest fleet renewal in its history and the Product Innovation Centre in Adelaide, the Qantas Group continues to grow its 28,000-strong Australian workforce. As a net-employer, more than 4,400 new operational roles have been created since 2023, including pilots, cabin crew and engineers, with thousands more roles expected to be added in the years ahead.
