Commerzbank will cut 3,000 jobs, around 8% of its workforce, as it increases artificial intelligence (AI) investment set at €600m over the next four years.
The bank expects €500m in additional value to be added each year through the AI investments from 2030 onwards.
As part of its Momentum 2030 plan, the job cuts and AI investment at the bank comes at a time when Italy’s UniCredit is attempting a takeover.
“With Momentum 2030, the bank will leverage the potential of AI even more,” said a Commerzbank statement.
It said it “is continuing to scale its proven business model and is more firmly reflecting the potential of AI into its planning. In doing so, the bank is accelerating profitable growth, increasing efficiency and advancing technological innovation faster than previously planned.”
AI applications are already in use at the bank, which said it is “increasing productivity and service quality, delivering measurable benefits for customers and employees alike”.
As examples, Commerzbank said it will launch a complaints management process using agentic AI as an AI model that analyses large volumes of data to more precisely detect money laundering and financial crime, known as Hawk AI.
Identifying risks
It is also using AI-supported analysis of annual reports to identify risks at an early stage.
“In the next phase of development, Commerzbank will consistently deploy AI agents to support entire processes – ranging from account switching and know-your-customer procedures and document checks to the drafting of contracts,” said the bank. “This will significantly reduce labour-intensive tasks.”
As well as enabling a workforce reduction of 3,000 people, the bank said AI investments will enable it to “free up and partially redeploy around 10% of its capacities”.
In its latest quarterly results, for the first three months of the year, the bank reported an 11% increase in profit, which reached €1.4bn, while revenue grew 5% to €3.2bn.
“We started the year with record-level results,” said Commerzbank CEO Bettina Orlopp. “This proves that our strategy is working – and that it has more potential than originally planned. We are growing more strongly than expected, and our new targets through 2030 reflect this – ambitious while remaining reliable in their execution. Every alternative must be measured against this.”
The bank is expecting full-year revenues to grow to €15bn by 2028, and to €16.8bn by 2030.
It is not alone as a large traditional bank transforming through AI. In February, Santander said it expects its investments in AI to deliver €1bn in business value, through cost-cutting and revenue growth.
Presenting its plan for the next two years at an event in London, it said data and AI are important parts of its wider One Transformation digital programme.
At the investor event, Santander presented its 2026-28 plans, which included a target to increase its customer base from 180 million today to 200 million by 2028. Santander announced its planned acquisition of TSB last year, which will see the bank’s UK customer base grow by about five million.
The bank also outlined the business value that data and AI will deliver by 2028.
It said that by 2028, it expects to generate over €1bn of business value annually, in terms of cost savings and revenues, from data and AI initiatives.
According to Lloyds Banking Group’s Financial institutions sentiment survey for 2025, 59% of surveyed firms reported AI-driven productivity gains in the past 12 months, compared with 32% in the 2024 survey.
Banks also reported rising returns from AI in other areas. The survey found that 21% of respondents believe AI is directly driving business growth, compared with 8% in the survey a year ago.
Meanwhile, a third (33%) of respondents said AI is enhancing customer experiences, up from 14% in the previous survey. The same number said they have deeper customer insights through AI, compared with 18% in last year’s survey.
