Bank Workers Feel Unmoored as CEOs Talk AI-Related Cuts

Recent comments from banking CEOs about artificial intelligence-related layoffs have reportedly left industry workers uneasy.

That’s according to a report Sunday (June 7) from Bloomberg News, which says that feeling extends to people in higher-level jobs, who increasingly feel that AI could replace them.

The report quoted an investment banker in the United Arab Emirates, who asked not to be identified, who joked he may not be needed in the next five to 10 years, after he used Microsoft’s Copilot AI tool for an elevator pitch ahead of a client meeting.

Meanwhile, students who had for years turned to the financial world for its stability and generous salaries, are now finding it harder to get a foot in the door, Bloomberg added.

“I was looking at potentially applying for a master’s to give me another year to apply for jobs,” Andre Bonnick, a student at Warwick University.

Although some executives have discussed retraining workers to protect their jobs, it’s not clear how that might play out in practice, David Parsons, an employment lawyer at Mishcon de Reya, told Bloomberg.

“It’s fair to say middle office is vulnerable,” Parsons said. “That’s the difference with this wave of automation, it impacts jobs higher up the chain.”

He added that there could be consequences to sweeping layoffs if, for example, a banking cuts predominantly female administrative staff, or vast numbers of junior workers.

In those cases, “there are huge discrimination risks,” Parsons said. “It’s an underpriced risk.”

Bloomberg also noted that there are doubts about whether many of the layoff announcements thus far are actually about AI.

“I think a lot of companies have too much bureaucracy and they may use AI to cover up the fact that they should never have hired those people in the first place,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said at the bank’s China summit last month.

In other news from the intersection of AI and banking, recent PYMNTS Intelligence finds that credit unions who are deploying the technology outdo their peers in areas like member growth and asset accumulation. At the same time, institutions slower to modernize are beginning to demonstrate signs of marked member attrition.

“That dynamic reframes the industry’s digital transformation debate. For years, financial institutions discussed AI largely through the lens of operational efficiency, such as automating workflows, reducing support costs and improving fraud detection,” PYMNTS wrote.

“The new findings point to something more consequential. AI is emerging as customer infrastructure. Generation Z respondents were 73% more likely than the average consumer to want AI-powered financial advice.”