The Albanese Government is today releasing the draft Best Practice Guide on the Adoption of AI in the Workplace, a guide focused on collaborative workplace transformation that helps businesses maximise the benefits of AI adoption.
This Best Practice Guide means for the first time, businesses have a practical roadmap on how to make the most of their AI investment in partnership with their workforce.
The draft best practice guide is the result of multiple roundtables and forums with unions, employer peak representatives, academics, small businesses and large employers, including Microsoft, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra, Kmart, Blackmores and Ramsay Health Care.
Designed to help businesses make the most of their AI investment and based on real world evidence, the draft guide provides practical approaches that can be applied across workplaces, with case studies showing how companies are already collaborating with their workers to successfully implement AI.
The benefits of AI will be won or lost through the workforce’s embrace of the technology and how confident they are in using it.
While each business will adapt the guide to its unique circumstances, it reflects best practice.
Companies can use the draft guide to help answer the question: “What does good look like when it comes to AI adoption?”
The draft guide is now open for public consultation through the department’s consultation hub at consultations.dewr.gov.au. Consultation is open until 27 January 2027.
GUIDE OVERVIEW
Underpinned by 3 themes, Plan, Enable and Embed, the Best Practice Guide provides 8 practical principles to help workplaces make the most of the opportunities AI offers:
- Capturing the opportunity
- Identifying use cases and assessing workplace readiness
- Cooperative planning and worker engagement
- Designing work and jobs
- Building capability
- Managing workforce transformation
- Establishing AI governance
- Proactively managing risks and work health and safety.
The Guide also draws on real workplace experience, including:
- Brisbane Catholic Education, which reported that AI has helped 71% of its educators save time on administrative tasks, allowing more time to focus on student outcomes and higher-value work.
- Commonwealth Bank, which has used AI to support workforce development, with more than 32,000 employees engaging with personalised career, skills and learning tools.
- Blackmores Group, which reduced a manual data-entry process from 3 days to just 10 minutes using an AI-enabled solution.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Amanda Rishworth:
“The Best Practice Guide makes it clear that AI works best when the workforce is at the centre of the adoption process.
“AI adoption is fundamentally about workforce transformation and ultimately, we want AI to enhance Australian workplaces, with businesses and the workforce sharing in the benefits and opportunities it can bring.
“This Best Practice Guide for AI Adoption means businesses have a practical roadmap on how to make the most of their AI investment in partnership with their workforce.”
