Sydney, May 11, 2026, 06:01 AEST
WiseTech Global Ltd heads into Monday’s Sydney open with its ASX-listed shares under pressure after the stock last traded at A$42.27 on May 8, down 4.6% on the day, as investors weigh the company’s AI-led restructure against execution risk. The stock is also far below its 52-week high of A$121.31, market data showed.
This matters now because WiseTech is again being read alongside other premium ASX software names, not only as a logistics-software company. A May 9 market article grouped WiseTech with Xero as technology stocks investors are watching while they reassess software weakness, AI trends and long-term cloud growth. Xero is not a logistics rival, but it is a useful ASX software peer for sentiment.
The other pressure point is labour. The Guardian reported last week that some WiseTech staff were still waiting to learn whether they were among the 2,000 roles to be cut, nearly three months after the company announced the AI-linked plan. That has pushed workplace uncertainty into the investment case, not just the human resources file.
Trading has been choppy. WiseTech rose 5.2% on May 5, then fell for three straight sessions through May 8, when it closed at A$42.27 on volume of about 1.89 million shares, according to StockAnalysis data.
In its latest ASX materials for the Macquarie Australia Conference, WiseTech said it serves more than 22,000 logistics companies and other industry participants across 193 countries, including 23 of the top 25 freight forwarders and 46 of the top 50 global third-party logistics providers. The company said first-half fiscal 2026 revenue rose 76% and EBITDA — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a measure of operating earnings — rose 31%, helped by the e2open acquisition; it also pointed to AI agents already in production and said more than half of coding was using AI agents.
The central pitch is simple enough: use AI to write, test and ship software faster, then push that into CargoWise, WiseTech’s core platform for freight forwarders, customs brokers and logistics operators. The hard part is proving that faster output turns into durable revenue, not just a lower headcount.
Chief Executive Zubin Appoo put the shift bluntly in February, saying: “The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over.” He also said some projects that once took six or seven months could now be completed in a day, while customs rollouts into new countries could be done six or seven times faster; Marc Jocum, senior product and investment strategist at Global X ETFs, told Reuters recent weakness looked “more governance-driven than fundamental.” Reuters
The February plan covers about 2,000 jobs, or roughly 29% of WiseTech’s global workforce of about 7,000 across 40 countries. The cuts are expected to start with product and development and customer-service roles, while parts of e2open could face reductions of up to 50%.
Professionals Australia, which represents technology and engineering workers, has sought urgent talks with WiseTech. Paul Inglis, the union’s director, called the AI rollout a “major workplace change” and said consultation should include details on how new AI systems will be used, their likely job impact and alternatives such as redeployment or retraining. Reuters
Competition risk also sits in the background. Australia’s competition regulator accepted a court-enforceable undertaking requiring WiseTech to divest Expedient, a logistics software business acquired through e2open, after finding Expedient had been a competitor to CargoWise in Australia and New Zealand. ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said WiseTech completed the acquisition before the regulator could conduct its review, despite concerns being raised.
But the plan carries a clear risk. AI may lift coding speed, yet that does not automatically settle staff consultation, e2open integration, regulatory scrutiny or customer tolerance for changes to pricing and workflow. If savings arrive before product gains, investors may treat the restructure as cost-cutting with better language.
For now, WiseTech’s question is not whether AI is central to the story. The company has made that clear. The question for ASX:WTC is whether it can turn the AI reset into confidence before the market focuses again on job cuts, governance and the price of growth.
