The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has released a major report on AI as a key driver for economic growth.
As they note in the introduction:
“AI is helping doctors diagnose diseases earlier and more accurately, giving families time and hope. It is helping heavy industries operate more safely, reducing waste and creating new, high-value products. In education, AI is helping personalise learning experiences while giving teachers time back to spend with students. AI is helping us manage our natural resources more sustainably. It will underpin our economy and quality of life in the same way as electricity – an essential, seamlessly integrated force empowering how we live and work.”
These insights date back to 2017 and were shared at the time by Andrew Ng, a co-founder of Coursera, chief scientist at Baidu Research and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Note the timing – they were made years before the public launch of ChatGPT and other large language models, and the many other forms of generative AI now available. In the almost four years since their release, these forms of AI have been having an even more profound impact on how work is done in some occupations – as both ASQA and TEQSA have recently realised.
The BCA’s report goes on to argue that:
“This technological shift comes at a critical moment. Long-term economic growth, the kind that lifts living standards for everyone, doesn’t happen by accident. It hinges on our ability to innovate, to invest wisely, and to quickly embrace new technologies that allow us to do or make more without more effort or resources. This is known as productivity, and it has languished in Australia for decades. The great leaps forward we have made in productivity have been a result of new technologies – electricity, mechanisation, computers. The next frontier is AI. Australia must make big moves immediately to ensure we do not miss the opportunity.”
Amongst the report’s 16 recommended actions are the following focussed on skills development activities:
Action 3 Create a National AI Skills Compact – this is identified as a first order priority by the BCA to be completed by June 2026 and would involve creating a national AI apprenticeship model focussed on “AI-related trades such as data centre operations and network systems”.
The proposed skills compact would also involve developing a national version of the NSW Institute of Applied Technology Digital model to “deliver fast, flexible microcredentials in AI and related fields.” These microcredentials should be co-designed and endorsed by “leading employers” to reflect both “real workforce needs and emerging technologies.”
Action 4 Reform AI skills development pathways – this action is intended to be completed by June 2027 and involves the development of foundational AI concepts and practical skills modules to be integrated into school curricula (for both primary and secondary school students), as well as specialist modules across all disciplines in higher education and VET to ensure students are prepared to use the AI tools they will encounter in their future workplaces (in health, law, manufacturing, the creative industries, etc).
