Australia’s WiseTech to cut 2,000 jobs as AI renders manual coding obsolete

A new risk for enterprise customers

For CIOs running operations on CargoWise, the cuts raise immediate questions about continuity. WiseTech’s own statement disclosed that 11 of its largest freight forwarder customers currently have less than 20% of expected users live on the platform — meaning several major implementations are mid-rollout as the vendor halves its engineering and support teams.

Gogia said the highest risk period would not be immediate. “The highest exposure window is six to eighteen months in, when experienced engineers have left, AI systems are still maturing, and support processes are being re-wired,” he said. CIOs should seek named human accountability at escalation levels beyond automated triage, he added, and contractual SLAs that guarantee time to human escalation, not just response acknowledgment.

Alongside the job cuts, WiseTech disclosed a commercial model shift with direct implications for enterprise software buyers. The company said approximately 95% of CargoWise customers had already transitioned to its new transaction-based pricing model — the CargoWise Value Packs — away from per-seat licensing, following a December 2025 launch. The rationale, as Appoo stated plainly, is structural: “For SaaS businesses that monetise on seats or users, AI will disrupt them.”

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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