Barclays cuts 5,000 jobs and points to AI

The figure appears in Barclays' quarterly results presentation, published on October 22: about 5,000 jobs cut by the end of the year, roughly 5% of the British bank's workforce. Around 1,000 had already gone in the first half. The other 4,000 will follow by December.

The justification comes down to a phrase from that presentation, quoted by Euronews: a “simplification of the organization” and efficiency gains enabled by technological change, “driven by AI.” About 60% of the cuts affect support functions, including developers.

AI, “the icing on the cake”

CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan called AI the “icing on the cake” of the bank's technology investments, according to the Wall Street Journal. Chief financial officer Anna Cross points out that cost reductions since January are roughly double those of the previous two years. Barclays achieved £201 million in structural savings in the third quarter and expects £300 million more in the fourth. The savings, the bank says, will fund new investments.

The context matters. Pre-tax profit of £2.32 billion is up year on year but below the £2.42 billion analysts expected, according to the Wall Street Journal. Markets activity in rates and credit disappointed, as the CEO himself acknowledged.

What the bank does not detail

No AI tool is named. Barclays also does not say how many jobs are disappearing because an AI now does the work, and how many result from a conventional reorganization. Neither the countries nor the roles affected are detailed beyond the share of support functions.

Analysts remain cautious. Will Howlett of Quilter Cheviot, quoted by Euronews, expects AI and automation to transform the bank in the coming years. He wonders, however, whether smaller teams will cut costs without slowing growth.

A trend among European banks

Barclays is not alone. Germany's Commerzbank and Norway's DNB have also announced job cuts and increased use of AI this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. In May, Standard Chartered's chief executive, Bill Winters, said AI would make it possible to replace “lower-value human capital,” before retracting his remarks and apologizing.

The mention of developers echoes other signals: Anthropic says it hardly hires junior engineers anymore, and in France, the state's HR directorate estimates that one public employee in five holds a job exposed to AI. To know whether AI truly replaces these jobs, we will have to wait for banks to publish more precise figures than presentation slogans.