Barclays to cut 5,000 roles in AI push

Barclays is shedding roughly 5,000 positions worldwide as part of an operational overhaul connected to the rollout of AI.

The bank has already phased out 1,000 roles and plans to complete another 4,000 departures by the end of the current year.

The combined reductions represent about 5% of its total global headcount.

Roughly 60% of the planned departures will occur within central support functions, directly affecting roles such as developers.

Geographically, a major share of the losses will hit staff in India, where offshore back-office operations for the UK business are situated, the BBC reported.

The downsizing aligns with the conclusion of a three-year cost-reduction programme.

While activity centres heavily on the UK retail bank, the investment banking unit is also within the scope of the cuts.

Barclays has outlined an additional £1.1bn in financial savings expected from its efficiency drives in 2027.

Bank leadership framed the moves as components of a wider modernisation project rather than an exclusive consequence of automation, terming AI the “icing on the cake” of its broader agenda.

Barclays Group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan linked the headcount reduction to large-scale infrastructure investments aimed at refining operational structures.

“AI has an important role to play and may have a more important role to play in the future,” Venkatakrishnan said.

“We will employ the AI at scale. But AI is the icing on the cake not the cake. Because you need to do the infrastructure build to get the benefits of AI.”

Barclays chief financial officer Anna Cross addressed the operational restructuring during a briefing with financial analysts.

“The changes that we’re making in the third and fourth quarters of this year are sizable,” Cross said.

“They relate both to the simplification of the organisation and to some of the impacts that we’re starting to see from AI.”

Competitors including HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Danske Bank have likewise disclosed AI-linked headcount reductions during the year.

The staff cuts drew an immediate reaction from labour union Unite, which represents banking sector personnel.

Sharon Graham, the union’s general secretary, stated that the financial institution was “using AI as an excuse to discard its loyal and long-suffering workforce”.

“Employers should be focussed on upgrading employees’ skills so that they remain employed as new technology changes the workplace. Instead, Barclays is guilty of taking a short-term, kneejerk approach,” Graham said.