🗞️ Meow meow

Good morning. Two pilots are in trouble after making animal noises over air traffic control frequencies.

After being told to act professionally, the pilots promptly followed up with "meow, meow, meow" and "ruff, ruff, ruff." You can listen to the 'conversation' here.


We suspect the pilots will soon be looking for a new profession.

All the headlines and more below...

CANVA RIPPED UP ITS ENTIRE PRODUCT A YEAR BEFORE IPO TO CHASE CHATGPT

Canva rebuilt itself overnight as a conversational AI workspace. Not an update, but a full relaunch. New interfaces, new models, new pricing. It now says it competes directly with ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, not Adobe and Figma.

There’s been a string of startup acquisitions that turned Canva into what it calls an "agentic marketing stack." The target market is bigger and far more hyped than design software. But the user base still thinks of Canva as a drag-and-drop design tool.

Canva is hoping that it can retrain millions of users to see the product as something completely different, then ask public investors to price it accordingly. If it works, it's a brilliant re-categorisation - almost like the one we saw last week with Allbirds.

NATIONAL FUEL PRICES (Day-on-Day Change)

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• The federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program has delivered over 250,000 discounted battery installations with 7.7GWh capacity as Clean Energy Regulator inspections found 60.8% substandard and 1.2% unsafe. LINK

• Sydney and Melbourne house prices have fallen 0.04% since February as rising fuel costs and interest rates deter buyers, while growth in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide sustains the national market. LINK

• The Victorian government has extended free public transport across May and will offer half price fares until year-end as a $400M election sweetener responding to Middle East conflict. LINK

• Woolworths has warned suppliers against ambit price rises amid Iran war related cost pressures and collapsing consumer sentiment as the ACCC probes how major retailers manage margins and signal pricing. LINK

• Coles has announced a $1M one-off relief payment and a temporary 5c per litre special milk payment for its directly contracted dairy farmers as production costs surge. LINK

CLIENTS HARD-CODE 10% AI DISCOUNTS INTO CONSULTING CONTRACTS

Companies are writing AI efficiency clauses directly into contracts. Tick the box that says you used AI, the fee drops 10%. One boutique firm quoted a $1M IT build and discovered the discount clause in the final phase.

The firm rebuilt a construction company's website for 60% of what the same job cost 6 years ago. The board pushed back, assuming lower price meant lower quality. Another client got 20 AI-conducted stakeholder interviews for the cost of 3-4 human sessions. The agent asked follow-ups, probed for detail, summarised everything. Feedback was positive.

PwC is pitching "value-based" billing to hold margins steady, citing AI tool costs and training. Revium's managing director reckons that might work short-term if you've got the brand, but there's no logical justification when production costs collapse.

The efficiency gains are real and clients aren't subsidising consulting margins.

COMPANY NEWS

• PwC has revealed in its FY25 report that 10 staff were disciplined for code of conduct breaches, resulting in 8 exits, while it also disclosed a data breach to the Department of Finance. LINK

• Bendigo Bank has confirmed it will cut 188 technology jobs, or nearly 25% of its tech workforce, as it pursues US$65M to US$75M in cost savings through outsourcing deals. LINK

• Macquarie Group has onshored more than 100 banking customer service jobs from the Philippines to build a 500-strong Australia-based team, cutting average retail wait times by 60% in 6 months. LINK

• Chartered Accountants ANZ has upheld almost 300 complaints against staff at big four and other major firms, issuing 200 cautions and about 100 reminders, while withholding firm names. LINK

• Tabcorp has received approval from the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission to roll out its 30cm tap-in-play betting pucks across 650 pubs and clubs in NSW and Victoria. LINK

• AustralianSuper has disclosed that its 3.6 million members indirectly own stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI via private equity holdings, without revealing the investments’ value. LINK

• Woolworths is set to vigorously contest an ACCC Federal Court case alleging it and Coles misled shoppers with “Down Down” and “Prices Dropped” promotions, in a high stakes test likely to be appealed. LINK

• CBA has sparked fresh concern over regional branch closures as it prepares to shut its Kingscliff branch on 8 May, despite agreeing to a moratorium until 31 July 2027. LINK

• Meta has planned a first wave of layoffs cutting about 10% of its global workforce or nearly 8,000 employees on May 20, with further job cuts later in 2026. LINK

• Canva has relaunched as a conversational agentic AI workspace called Canva AI 2.0 with new interfaces, foundation models and pricing, using its 4th Canva Create event to declare a strategic shift from a SaaS design company to an AI company. LINK

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CHART OF THE DAY

Top-rated public transport systems by city

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: Trump announced findings from a government review of UFO files.

Draft Pick: North Melbourne defeated Richmond by 75 points in AFL Round 6.

Odd Pick: Activist who pushed 2020 election fraud claims convicted of election fraud.

TRIVIA

True or false:

1. Goldfish can’t close their eyes.

2. Liquorice decreases your blood pressure.

3. Females have more tastebuds than males.

Answers below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWERS

1. True
2. False
3. True

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