The 2 July article warned: “Artificial intelligence set to change the workforce, impacting graduate jobs, new research reveals.” A 36-year-old solicitor in Lismore has already introduced an AI program that now performs the grunt work a graduate lawyer used to do. And that’s just one example.
ABC’s chief economics reporter, Alan Kohler, has been sounding the alarm for months. On 10 June, he warned that governments may be forced to introduce new taxes on AI to offset the massive job losses it is expected to cause. Kohler isn’t alone. The signs are everywhere. This is not just another technological shift—it is a transformation.
Earlier this week, I watched with intrigue a Four Corners episode on Trump’s tariffs and the push to revive American manufacturing. The flaw in this plan? Modern manufacturing doesn’t need people. In the AI-robotic age, factories run themselves. While the episode lamented a shortage of 500,000 unfilled jobs, the reality is that many of those roles may soon vanish altogether.
So, with blue-collar and white-collar work being automated, what will people be left to do?
We’ve been here before. The last major workforce revolution, the Industrial Revolution (1760–1840), saw people leave the land for city factories. Modern schooling was designed to serve that economic model: produce workers who could follow instructions, show up on time, and do repetitive tasks. That model lasted nearly two centuries.
But today, we’re not facing a transition. We’re facing a rapid transformation. What once took 80 years is now happening in five to ten years. Goldman Sachs predicts 50% of jobs could be fully automated by 2045. And it’s already happening. The Australian Financial Review (10 June 2025) reported that UK-based online grocer Ocado needed 500 fewer employees this year alone due to automation.
“Evolve or die” may sound provocative—but there’s truth in it.
We can’t afford to keep tweaking outdated systems. We are standing at a turning point in education. Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the world our students will enter. Knowledge is searchable. Many high-level tasks are being automated.
So what does this mean for school leaders?
It means we must reimagine what it means to be educated. And we can’t rely, or wait for our political leaders to do this thinking.
In this new era, the human capacities of creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving are more valuable than ever. They are the traits AI cannot replicate, and the traits that define deep learning, purpose, and engagement. The World Economic Forum, OECD, and McKinsey agree: the future of work will belong to those who can do what AI cannot.
At Vivedus, we call this activating creative intelligence, and we believe it must sit at the heart of every learning experience.
The Leadership We Need Now
But transformation takes bold leadership.
And right now, many school leaders are paralysed.
I’m seeing this firsthand. Principals across the country are overwhelmed—unsure how or where to begin addressing the multiple, compounding crises they face:
- Rising teacher workload and burnout
- Widespread student disengagement
- Escalating behavioural challenges
- A sharp increase in student mental health issues
- Ever-growing compliance demands
This paralysis is understandable. The system is in crisis. But leadership in this moment means resisting the urge to retreat or maintain the status quo. It means asking new questions and acting on them.
- Are we equipping students for the world as it is, or as it was?
- Are our teachers empowered to teach creatively—or stuck in survival mode?
- Are our systems lifting teaching quality and reducing workload—or weighing teachers down?
Leadership today requires courage, vision, and clarity. It’s not about discarding tradition. It’s about building something better, something more human, in the face of a fast-automating world.
Because in the age of AI, it is creative intelligence that will define not only how we learn, but how we lead.
