Home topics news Image Credit: COSBOA News News AI-written Fair Work claims are surging. Small businesses are paying the price Yajush Gupta February 23, 2026 Fair Work claims are projected to hit 55,000 this year. The FWC president says AI is the reason. Here’s what Australian business owners need to know now. What’s happening : Fair Work Commission President Justice Adam Hatcher has warned that AI tools are driving a surge in workplace claims that is pushing the Commission to its limits. Why this matters : AI tools are lowering the barrier to lodging claims, enabling employees to prepare and file applications, including some with invented or embellished facts, with minimal effort, time, or cost. There is a scene Justice Adam Hatcher describes that will resonate with any employer who has ever had to let someone go. He opened ChatGPT, told it he had been dismissed, provided a few basic facts, and watched the tool produce a ready-to-file Fair Work application and a witness statement containing, as he put it, “a substantially-invented story” about his dismissal. It suggested he could realistically expect between $15,000 and $40,000 in compensation. The whole exercise took less than 10 minutes. Justice Hatcher, President of the Fair Work Commission, shared this account in a presentation to the Victorian Bar Association on 18 February 2026, titled “A disrupted future: Artificial intelligence and the Fair Work Commission.” It was a candid signal to Australian employers that the landscape of workplace disputes has changed significantly, and that AI