As AI anxiety continues to ripple through the media and advertising industry, IAB Australia’s CEO, Gai Le Roy, says the focus shouldn’t be on replacing workers – but on creating entirely new roles to work alongside the technology.
Speaking at a packed Cairns Crocodiles panel hosted at Hemingway’s Brewery, Le Roy warned the industry is entering a difficult transition period, where businesses are already cutting teams and restructuring before AI tools are truly capable of operating independently.
“I’m hoping we will go our own way and be creative enough to create new jobs to supplement,” Le Roy said.
“So it’s not just forcing people to keep employees in existing roles, but what are those new roles going to look like?”
The session, titled ‘AI Without The Eye-Roll’, explored whether AI hype is matching reality, with panellists debating everything from bot traffic and attention metrics through to whether AI will eventually replace human workers.
Le Roy acknowledged the pace of change was creating real uncertainty across the industry.
“I do worry about this middle period,” she said. “And I do feel for everyone in the industry who is trying to do two or three jobs before the tools are ready to run on their own.”
Her comments come as media companies, agencies and tech platforms increasingly invest in AI-driven automation, while simultaneously reducing headcounts and restructuring teams.
However, Le Roy argued the industry’s future workforce will depend on humans developing skills AI cannot easily replicate.
“The things I would be focusing on if I was worried about my job are understanding connection, sales, finance and people,” she said.
“You need to get as close to the customer or supplier as possible.”
She also stressed that simply using AI tools won’t be enough to stand out in the future workplace.
“If you’re using AI tools, knowing how to unpick it, knowing how to actually do it differently than someone else — that diagnostic piece is the most important,” she said.
Joining Le Roy on the panel was Rohan Kohli, who agreed AI is currently functioning more as an enhancement tool than a replacement for workers.
“At the minute where I look around in our organisation, I think it’s augmenting us,” Kohli said.
“I think it’s helping us be a bit more productive on things that might take a lot more time.”
The panel also featured an unexpected third guest: ChatGPT itself.
Introduced live on stage as a surprise participant, the AI-powered voice assistant promised “sharp takes” and “unexpected angles” before proceeding to fail spectacularly at answering several questions and completely collapsing during a game of Celebrity Heads.
This resulted in the audience errupting in laughter, as the panel wrapped up for the afternoon.
