Catherine Sullivan, 63, was let go after 25 years at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia — not due to poor performance, but because the AI chatbot she helped train, Bumblebee AI, replaced her job role.
Sullivan was tasked with creating and testing chatbot responses, unaware that her contribution would lead to her redundancy. Public outcry pushed the bank to reconsider, but she declined to return.
Now, she advocates for ethical and legal frameworks around AI in the workplace to protect employees from being unwittingly replaced.
