Qantas Opens Product Innovation Centre in Adelaide: AI-First, Customer-Centric, Built to Ship
Qantas is launching a Product Innovation Centre in Adelaide's CBD, scheduled to open in March 2026. Backed by the South Australian Government, the Centre will create 420+ highly skilled tech roles over three years and bring design, engineering, product, and data/AI under one roof.
The mandate is clear: build digital products that reduce friction at every touchpoint and strengthen resilience when plans change. For product teams, this is a rare example of a national carrier committing to in-house capability at scale.
Why Adelaide, Why Now
Adelaide gives Qantas access to strong universities, a growing tech community, and room to scale. Leadership frames this as a strategic bet on Australian talent and the systems needed to lift customer satisfaction across domestic and international networks.
Government support accelerates hiring and infrastructure. Expect this to attract senior operators and create a strong early-career pipeline.
Talent Pipeline with Adelaide University
Qantas is partnering with Adelaide University to build direct graduate pathways into the Centre, with a focus on AI and machine learning roles. This pairs industry-scale problems with academic research and gives students a clear route into product, data, and engineering teams.
Learn more about the university's programs here: University of Adelaide.
Where Product Value Lands First
- App speed and reliability: faster flows for search, booking, seat selection, and status.
- Frictionless check-in and boarding: smarter ID and queue logic; fewer taps, fewer errors. See context on standards like IATA One ID.
- Disruption handling: AI-driven rebooking, proactive notifications, and self-serve options when flights change.
- Baggage visibility: end-to-end tracking, clear SLAs, and recovery flows that build trust.
- Personalization: relevant offers, seat and meal suggestions, and status-aware support-without adding cognitive load.
How This Centre Will Likely Operate
- Cross-functional squads: product, design, engineering, data/ML working off shared metrics.
- Platform thinking: reusable services (identity, payments, notifications, loyalty, disruption) to speed new use cases.
- Responsible AI: model monitoring, bias checks, human-in-the-loop for high-impact decisions, and clear escalation paths.
- Core metrics: time-to-task, app crash rate, self-serve adoption, rebooking time, mishandled-bag rate, call deflection, CSAT/NPS, and OPEX per resolved case.
What Product Leaders Can Apply Today
- Pick two moments that matter and ship improvements weekly-measure time saved per customer task.
- Design for disruption: pre-built scenarios, auto-rebooking logic, and clear fallback to human support.
- Instrument everything: event streams for search, booking, check-in, and service flows; make issues observable in hours, not weeks.
- Invest in talent ladders: graduate programs, rotations across squads, and a builder culture that rewards outcome over ceremony.
Government Backing and Economic Impact
South Australia is investing to grow high-tech jobs and attract long-term product capability. This Centre builds on recent Qantas moves in the state, including the new Adelaide lounge precinct and the return of Adelaide-Auckland flights.
The outcome is more local jobs, stronger tech density, and faster delivery on customer-facing improvements at national scale.
Timeline
- Announcement: November 13, 2025
- Opening: March 2026
- Headcount: 420+ roles within three years
Upskilling for Product Teams
If you're building similar capabilities-AI product strategy, model-aware design, or data-first roadmaps-these curated resources can help:
Bottom line: Qantas is bringing product and AI closer to the problems that matter-speed, clarity, and resilience. The companies that win will ship small, measure honestly, and keep the customer's next action painfully obvious.
Image credit: Qantas
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