Australia Flags AI Shift in Economic Plan, Ignores Cryptocurrency

Australia's latest Intergenerational Report highlights five key transitions expected to shape the country's economy over the next 40 years. The report, released by the Australian Treasury on Monday, flags artificial intelligence (AI) as a major economic shift, but notably omits any mention of digital assets or cryptocurrency.

Coinbase Australia's country director, John O'Loghlen, criticized the omission in an emailed response, arguing that the report fails to address the financial infrastructure needed for AI-driven agents. According to O'Loghlen, the report makes clear that Australia's prosperity over the next 40 years depends on adopting new technology and boosting productivity, but 'completely misses the financial infrastructure those agents will need.'

The Intergenerational Report identifies five key transitions: geopolitical conflicts, an aging population, a shift to clean energy, industrial transformation toward services, and new technology driven by artificial intelligence. The report characterizes agentic AI systems as having advanced rapidly, becoming significantly more capable, more autonomous, and more widely used. These systems have surpassed human-level performance on some benchmarks, positioning AI not just as an incremental tool but as an operational shift that could change how economic activity is organized.

The omission of digital assets in the Intergenerational Report may reflect policymakers' categorization of digital assets as a technical subset of financial innovation rather than a macro-economic driver. However, the 'Financial Innovation Strategy,' released by Treasury on September 3, links agentic systems to faster, interoperable, and programmable payment infrastructure. This highlights the need for defined rules for stablecoins and tokenized markets to support AI-driven automation.

O'Loghlen pointed to regulatory clarity from the Digital Asset Platform framework as a positive development, but urged further attention to stablecoin stored-value facilities and clearer rules for tokenized markets. The emphasis on 'rails' is where the two parts of the story connect, Treasury's financial strategy highlights interoperable payment systems as agentic AI increases automated transactions.

The immediate uncertainty is not whether agentic systems will increase demand for machine-to-machine payments, but how quickly the legal and technical frameworks for tokenized settlement can keep pace with that demand. The Australian government has been increasing attention to tokenized finance and financial infrastructure upgrades in recent years, which may be reflected in future high-level economic reporting.