Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Amazon leads 2026 tech layoffs with 16,000 cuts attributed to AI efficiency. Reality check: Goldman Sachs data shows AI threatens 2.5% of US jobs, and workers in AI-exposed roles show no higher job loss rates yet. The automation narrative is running ahead of the evidence.
Jason Lemkin's team processed 1.5 million inbound sessions and sent hundreds of thousands of outbound messages using Artisan, Salesforce AgentForce, Qualified, and Monaco. The takeaway: your human playbook has to work first, and you probably only need one vendor.
Australia's financial regulator surveyed 1,227 18-28 year olds. Two-thirds use social media for investment decisions, one in five rely on AI tools, and 52% trust finfluencers. ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland warns algorithms prioritise clicks over accuracy, putting young investors at risk.
Four Australian startups raised $31.9 million across energy, legal tech, health, and construction. MGA Thermal's $17 million clean energy round led the week. Context: ANZ hit $5.1 billion in 2025 funding, but this signals a return to smaller deals after Q4's $2 billion surge.
Australian construction tech startup Scopey Onsite closed $850k pre-seed funding after relocating HQ to Ireland. The AI platform turns WhatsApp messages into structured site records. No details on sales team size, hiring plans, or comp structure disclosed.
Quieter funding week with $31.9M across four deals. Firmable, an AI sales intelligence platform, closed close to $20M Series A led by Airtree for US expansion. MGA Thermal added $17M for industrial energy storage. ANZ VC remains selective: Q3 2025 hit $1B across 116 rounds, 70% concentrated in top 10 deals.
MGA Thermal closed $17 million led by IP Group Australia. The Newcastle-based thermal energy storage startup has now raised $50 million total. No hiring numbers disclosed, but CEO Mark Croudace says they are scaling commercial capability and manufacturing.
Melbourne fintech Pay.com.au is eyeing an April ASX listing at $850m valuation, raising $85m. The company processed $2bn in payments for 50,000 SMEs, but sales team size and expansion hiring plans remain unclear. Worth watching if you are tracking ANZ fintech growth.
Atlassian is cutting 1,600 roles globally, around 10% of its 16,000-person workforce. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes says the cuts will fund AI investment and enterprise sales expansion. Impact on ANZ sales teams unclear, but the restructure includes shifting skill mix for AI-era software delivery.
Jason Lemkin's analysis of 1,000+ pitch decks shows most AI features are press releases, not revenue drivers. The 10% that actually moved ACV, churn, or NRR? They started with pricing, not product. Worth noting: SaaStr replaced 10 sales roles with 1.2 humans managing 20 AI agents while maintaining 8-figure revenue.
Most B2B software companies are slowing down. Cloudflare just posted its best quarter since 2021: $614.5M revenue, up 34% year over year, with new ACV growing nearly 50%. The numbers point to aggressive sales hiring and territory expansion ahead.
New research from Anthropic tracks actual AI usage at work, not theoretical capability. Sales operations and research roles show higher exposure than client-facing positions. The data reveals which sales functions are already being automated versus which remain human-dependent.