Barclays Bank is planning to reduce its headcount by 5,000 as technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) drives cost-cutting.
The number equates to 5% of the bank’s total workforce and adds to the AI-fuelled cuts seen at major banks this year.
The UK bank said 60% of the cuts will come from support functions, including the need for “fewer developers as AI makes our people more productive”.
Speaking at a results meeting, the bank’s CEO, CS Venkatakrishnan, said the job cuts were the result of technology investments.
“AI has an important role to play and may have a more important role to play in the future,” he said. “I’ve often said that it is the icing on the cake – it’s not the cake – because you need to do the infrastructure build to get the benefits of AI.”
Barclays Bank said it expects to make efficiency savings of £1.1bn in 2027, with the actions taken expected to reduce “5,000 full-time employees”.
A spokesperson at the high street bank said: “We are positioning Barclays for the future, building the workforce and skills needed to deliver our strategy and meet the evolving needs of our customers and clients. In doing so, we are committed to helping our colleagues develop and build rewarding careers, while meeting the changing needs of customers and clients and ensuring Barclays continues to succeed in the years ahead.”
Earlier this month, HSBC announced plans to cut half of its management and specialist positions in wealth management and reduce the number of human financial advisers by 70%. The bank is using AI to replace them through cuts described as “deep, wide and brutal”.
Furthermore, HSBC investment bank boss Michael Roberts recently said AI agents could replace humans trading in financial markets in a few years, due to the combination of advances in AI, quantum computing and distributed ledger technology.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Roberts stressed that humans need to remain “in the loop”, adding: “I think quantum computing will be able to look at very complex types of market movements, and with the advent of AI – which will make that even quicker – you can see agents trading bonds using quantum computing. That’s the future.”
Separately, and in a different industry, the boss of Indian IT services giant Infosys dismissed fears of AI taking jobs as “hogwash”, stating that the technology will fuel demand for new human skills.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani stressed the need for people to provide the skills needed for AI to deliver.
“Business transformation is not just about coding – 70% is governance, change management, transformation, guardrails,” he said.
Nilekani asked: “How do you make sure AI bots don’t hallucinate? How do you make sure agents don’t go rogue?”
Answering his own question, he said the need for people was “more than ever before” for companies like Infosys.
