Barclays cutting 5,000 jobs in AI-led efficiency drive

Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs as part of AI-led efficiency drive

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Barclays is cutting its staff by around 5,000 as it introduces more artificial intelligence (AI) into its work processes. The banking group said 1,000 posts had already been closed and it expects a further reduction of 4,000 to be complete by the end of this year, amounting to around 5% of its global workforce.

The bank's cost reductions are focused on its UK retail bank, but some back office functions for the UK are done in India, where a significant proportion of the job cuts are expected to fall. Barclays said the changes were the result of an ongoing modernisation plan, with the use of AI being the "icing on the cake" of its strategy.

Barclays Group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said the job cuts were the result of significant investment it is making in technology to simplify and improve its business. "AI has an important role to play and may have a more important role to play in the future. "We will employ the AI at scale," he said.

The job cuts will mean losing about 5% of the bank’s 93,000 global staff, with executives confirming they had already cut 1,000 workers since the start of the year. The bank’s chief financial officer, Anna Cross, told reporters that the job cuts were part of plans to save more than £1.1bn in 2027.

Barclays also announced plans to hand a further £500m to investors, taking the total amount given to shareholders since January – through buybacks and dividends – to £2.8bn. It came as the lender reported £2.3bn in pre-tax profits over the July to September quarter, up 12% from £2.1bn during the same period last year.