AI and technology shouldn’t replace retirement planning and policy: auditor

Division 296 is a reminder that retirement outcomes are shaped not only by markets and technology, but by policy, a leading auditor said.

Naz Randeria, director of Reliance Auditing Services, was responding to a claim by tech billionaire Elon Musk that retirement savings could become irrelevant in an age of AI abundance.

“It may sound visionary, but Australia’s superannuation system exists precisely because the future is uncertain, not guaranteed,” Randeria said.

Musk stated in a recent appearance on the podcast Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, that people should not worry about saving for retirement as it will not be necessary in 10-20 years’ time.

He suggested that advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and energy could create such abundance that the very idea of saving for retirement may no longer matter.

“It is a striking claim. It also sits uneasily with the principles on which Australia’s superannuation system is built,” Randeria countered.

“Superannuation was never designed around certainty. It exists because the future is unknowable.”

Randeria continued that this argument relies on a “single optimistic scenario” – that technological abundance arrives smoothly, is broadly distributed, and materially reduces the need for personal savings.

“Australia’s retirement framework is built on a different premise. It assumes uncertainty. Markets fluctuate, policy settings change, health deteriorates, and careers do not always end on our own timetable,” she said.

“Superannuation is a mechanism for managing these risks over time. This logic applies across the system. SMSF trustees simply confront it more directly. With control over investment, tax and liquidity decisions, they tend to plan for a range of outcomes because retirement outcomes are path-dependent.”

She added that planning for retirement is not a rejection of progress, but rather a recognition that progress is uneven and unpredictable.

Furthermore, she said, the assumption that lower productivity costs achieved through technology means “abundance” will flow through to all, is incorrect.

“Productivity growth does not guarantee broad-based prosperity without institutions, competition and deliberate policy choices,” she said.

“Australia’s compulsory superannuation system reflects a long-standing recognition that wages alone and future governments alone are not a sufficient foundation for retirement security. Within that system, SMSFs highlight the logic most clearly.

“Trustees deliberately build capital that can generate income independently of industry, health or employability. That principle remains relevant even if costs fall, because ‘cheap’ is not ‘free’ and distribution is never automatic.”

She said the government’s revised Division 296 legislation demonstrates how quickly rules can shift in response to fiscal pressure.

“Whether you support Div 296 or not, its evolution reinforces a simple truth that long-term retirement planning must contend with policy risk as well as market risk,” she said.

“SMSFs make this especially visible, requiring trustees to actively respond to legislative change rather than assume stability.”

With retirement expected to now last for decades, Randeria said longevity risk is an actuarial problem, not a technological one.

“Capital must support income across market cycles, inflation and health costs. If individuals do not save and abundance fails to materialise, the consequences are severe,” she said.

“If individuals do save and abundance arrives, the cost is modest, greater flexibility and resilience. That asymmetry sits at the heart of Australia’s superannuation system.”

She argued that Australia’s superannuation system is not a rejection of innovation, but an institutional response to uncertainty.

“SMSFs do not represent a different philosophy, they make that philosophy explicit through direct responsibility and governance,” she said.

“The purpose of superannuation is not to bet against progress. It is to remain secure regardless of how progress unfolds. And that is why retirement saving continues to matter.”

Keeli Cambourne

February 9 2026

smsfadviser.com