LONDON — JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer Jamie Dimon stated in December that artificial intelligence will eliminate banking jobs. Executives from other major banks have also commented on the future of employment in the sector.
Citigroup Inc. chief executive officer Jane Fraser indicated that certain banking roles will no longer be necessary due to new technological integration. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president John Waldron characterized bank employees as a human assembly line suitable for automation. Standard Chartered Plc chief executive officer Bill Winters stated, "It is not cost cutting; it is replacing in some cases lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we are putting in." Winters later apologized for his comments. Financial institutions are currently deploying artificial intelligence for targeted functions including customer service, transaction monitoring, and trade processing.
An investment banker in the United Arab Emirates used Microsoft Copilot to create a client presentation pitch. Citigroup is deploying a conversational artificial intelligence wealth management avatar to provide clients with financial guidance, for example. Barclays uses artificial intelligence to monitor customer service calls and reported summarizing over 8 million calls since October.
Employment lawyer David Parsons noted that middle office banking positions are particularly vulnerable to automation. Parsons also stated that bank executive proposals for employee retraining lack clear practical implementation. He warned that reducing junior or predominantly female administrative workforces carries discrimination risks.
Earlier this month, Bank of America Corp. planned to onboard approximately 2,000 summer interns and 2,000 full-time employees across eight business lines. The company intends to maintain a flat overall headcount while using artificial intelligence to drive operational efficiency. Dimon stated at a May summit in China that companies may use AI to justify reducing headcount they previously hired unnecessarily.