Barclays and American Express Plan Workforce Cuts Amid AI Push
publishers 35articles 60first reported 2 Oct, 16:15 UTCdeveloping since 2 Oct · 30 editions
Barclays and American Express announced plans to cut about 5% of their workforces as the financial companies reorganize operations and increase their use of artificial intelligence.
British bank Barclays said it would eliminate about 5,000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2026 through “organisational simplification and technology change efficiency driven by AI.” About 60% of the reductions will affect support functions, including development roles where the bank said AI is increasing productivity.
The announcement accompanied Barclays’ third-quarter results. Profit after tax rose 13% from a year earlier to £1.65 billion, while total group income increased 3% to £7.37 billion. Equities revenue jumped 47%, though Bloomberg reported that the bank’s fixed-income business fell short.
American Express CEO Stephen Squeri separately said Friday that the card company would eliminate 5% of its global workforce. The Indianapolis Business Journal reported that the reduction would affect about 3,500 employees. American Express had nearly 77,000 employees at the end of 2025.
The company recorded a $336 million restructuring charge for the quarter. Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC that American Express intends to reduce management layers and broaden spans of control before automating processes and expanding its use of AI. Squeri said the restructuring was intended to make the company more agile and efficient while creating capacity for investment in business priorities.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 4 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 504 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- 35
- Source articles
- 60
- Given to the writer
- 8, 4 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 504 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
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