Australian Shift Workers Split On AI As Poly-Employment Hits 10-Year High According To Deputy

Nearly one million Australian shift workers are now holding multiple jobs, with poly-employment reaching its highest level in a decade. But a new report has found that how those workers feel about AI depends almost entirely on the conditions of their employment rather than the type of work they do.

Deputy’s 2026 Big Shift Report, which analysed more than 60 million shifts and 188 million hours worked by 682,430 shift workers across hospitality, retail, healthcare and services, reveals a sharp divide within the same workforce over the role of AI in the workplace.

The finding complicates the narrative that workers are simply for or against AI. Instead, the data suggests that sentiment is shaped by whether a worker’s employment provides predictability, financial security and a sense of control.

Same workers, opposite views

The report identifies two distinct outcomes among poly-employed workers, but stresses that these are not different groups of people. They are the same individuals experiencing different workplace conditions.

Workers the report describes as “poly-advantaged” are those with predictable schedules, stable income and workplace transparency. These workers are using AI to coordinate multiple roles, manage availability and pursue new income opportunities. Only 37 per cent of this group express resistance to AI.

At the other end of the spectrum are “poly-resistant” workers, who face volatile schedules, income uncertainty and limited control over their working arrangements. Among this group, 63 per cent report that they do not want AI in their workplace, viewing it as a force that amplifies instability rather than reducing it.

Ciaran Hale, Chief Technology Officer at Deputy, argued that the distinction is not about the type of employment but the quality of it.

“Poly-employment is not the issue. It is the conditions surrounding it,” Hale explained. “When workers have predictable schedules, clear communication and control over their time, they see AI as a tool. Without that, it becomes a source of stress.”

“This is not a story about part-time versus full-time. It is about whether workplaces are designed to support people who are already managing multiple jobs. The same worker can be pro-AI or anti-AI depending on that experience.”

Gen Z dominates the shift workforce

The demographic composition of Australia’s shift workforce is shifting markedly. Gen Z now accounts for 56 per cent of all shift workers captured in the report, with millennials making up 26 per cent as they transition into more senior roles.

Among poly-employed shift workers specifically, the Gen Z share is even higher at 72 per cent.

Gen Alpha is also beginning to appear in the data, making up 0.8 per cent of the shift workforce as the oldest members of that generation enter their first jobs.

The generational shift is bringing new working patterns with it. The report points to the emergence of micro-shift employment – shorter and more flexible shifts – as younger workers look to fit work around study, education and personal commitments.

Retail leads on job-replacing AI

The retail sector stands out in the report as a front-runner in the adoption of AI tools that replace rather than augment labour.

More than half of Australian retailers, 52.1 per cent, now use AI tools including point-of-sale systems and upselling optimisation. That figure is higher than in the United States, where adoption sits at 46.2 per cent.

Self-service kiosks are now present in 33.8 per cent of Australian stores, compared with 28.4 per cent in the US.

The report attributes this partly to the concentrated nature of Australia’s retail market, where four companies control around 90 per cent of supermarket share and two hold close to 70 per cent. With less competitive pressure to invest in productivity-boosting technology for staff, the report argues that retailers are instead turning to labour-saving solutions.

For shift workers in retail, this trajectory raises questions about the long-term availability of the roles they currently hold, particularly for those already managing multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Healthcare’s hidden strain

Healthcare presents a different picture. The sector has one of the highest rates of poly-employment at 7.5 per cent and continues to grow in headcount. But the report warns that falling termination rates are masking deeper workforce strain.

Deputy’s data suggests many healthcare workers are staying in roles not because conditions have improved but because there are not enough replacements available. Workers are holding on rather than opting in.

At the same time, Australia is lagging behind the US in the adoption of administrative AI in healthcare. The report found that 44.4 per cent of Australian providers use tools such as voice-to-text and workflow automation, compared with 58.1 per cent in the US.

That gap is increasing pressure on workers who are already stretched across multiple employers and shifts.

Hospitality turns to the night

Hospitality, which shares the 7.5 per cent poly-employment rate with healthcare, is seeing growth concentrated in evening and night-time shifts.

Brisbane recorded the most sustained increase in evening activity across the cities captured in the report, while Perth experienced a late-stage acceleration in night-time hospitality shifts.

Despite the growth in shift volume, hiring demand has softened. Businesses in the sector are focusing on retaining existing staff and using AI to optimise rostering rather than expanding their headcount.

Hale pointed to this dynamic as evidence that AI’s impact on the frontline workforce depends heavily on how it is deployed.

“The industries under the most pressure are also where better use of AI can have the biggest impact,” he outlined. “But the foundation has to be right. AI cannot fix unpredictability on its own. It has to work alongside fair scheduling, transparency and empowerment of workers.”

Workplace design, not worker type

The report’s central argument is that the conversation about AI in shift work needs to move away from broad categories of workers and toward the design of workplaces themselves.

The data shows that AI sentiment among poly-employed workers is not fixed. It shifts depending on whether the workplace provides the conditions that allow workers to feel in control of their time and income. Where those conditions exist, workers are more likely to see AI as something that helps them manage complexity. Where they do not, AI becomes another source of uncertainty.

This has implications for employers, policymakers and technology providers alike. If resistance to AI among shift workers is driven primarily by workplace conditions rather than an inherent suspicion of the technology, then addressing those conditions becomes a prerequisite for successful adoption.

A data set of scale

The Big Shift Report draws on Deputy’s own platform data, which covers scheduling, time tracking and workforce management for shift-based businesses. The 2026 edition was analysed by Dr Shashi Karunanethy, Chief Economist at Geografia, who examined data from more than 60.4 million shifts across four industry sectors.

Deputy’s platform is used by more than 1.5 million shift workers and 380,000 workplaces in over 100 countries. The company provides AI-powered tools for scheduling, hiring, onboarding, forecasting, time tracking and compliance.

The scale of the dataset gives the findings weight, though it is worth noting that the data reflects Deputy’s customer base rather than the entire Australian shift workforce. Businesses that use scheduling software may differ in important ways from those that do not, which could affect the generalisability of the results.

The bigger question

The report arrives at a time when AI adoption is accelerating across nearly every sector of the Australian economy. Much of the public discussion has focused on white-collar and knowledge work, with less attention paid to how AI is affecting the millions of Australians who work in shift-based roles across hospitality, retail and healthcare.

Deputy’s data suggests that for these workers, the question is not whether AI will change their work but whether it will do so in ways that give them more control or less. The answer, according to the report, depends less on the technology itself and more on the choices employers make about how to implement it.

For the growing cohort of poly-employed Australians – those juggling two, three or more jobs across multiple employers – the stakes are particularly high. These workers are already navigating complexity across fragmented schedules, inconsistent communication and variable pay. Whether AI makes that easier or harder will be determined not by the algorithms but by the workplaces that deploy them.

Last Updated on April 20, 2026 by Nick Ross