Global banks are "reaching a consensus": with the spread of AI, layoffs are inevitable, especially in middle-office and entry-level positions.

Executives at major global banks are forming a rare consensus on the topic of AI replacing human labor—layoffs are inevitable, with middle-office functions and entry-level positions bearing the brunt, and the employment landscape in the financial industry is facing structural reshaping.

On June 7, Bloomberg reported that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said clearly last December that AI "will eliminate jobs"; Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser stated some positions "will no longer be needed"; Goldman Sachs President John Waldron compared employees to a "manual production line," suggesting a high potential for automation.

Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters was even more direct: "This is not cost-cutting, but in some cases replacing low-value human capital with financial capital and investment capital." However, he later apologized for the remark.

These statements have broadly unsettled industry insiders. Employment lawyer David Parsons of Mishcon de Reya pointed out that although Dimon and Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan and other executives talk about retraining and upskilling employees, how these commitments will be implemented in practice remains unclear.

Meanwhile, major banks are reducing the scale of junior analyst recruitment, and the gateway for graduates to enter the financial industry is narrowing.

Management Consensus: Middle-Office and Entry-Level Positions Are Most Vulnerable

Among all positions, middle-office functions are considered to face the most direct impact. "You could say the middle office is vulnerable," said David Parsons, "This wave of automation is different because it’s affecting higher-level positions."

Reportedly, an investment banker working in the UAE revealed that he used Microsoft Copilot at the last minute to prepare presentation material before a client meeting, and half-jokingly said that he might no longer be needed in the next five to ten years.

Debasish Patnaik, senior partner and head of QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s AI consulting division, disclosed that major banks are reducing junior analyst recruitment by up to two-thirds, while about 62% of AI talent is being recruited from among these fresh graduates.

He pointed out that although the scale of graduate recruitment "will shrink," banks are unlikely to completely abandon this group—"banking is an apprentice-based industry, today’s junior analysts are tomorrow’s managing directors, and senior decision-making cannot be replicated through lateral hiring."

AI Rollout: Focused on Specific Use Cases, Full Replacement Too Early

Currently, banks’ AI deployment focuses mainly on targeted functional scenarios, rather than comprehensive coverage. Former Barclays CEO and founder of 10x Banking Technologies, Antony Jenkins, commented:

"We won’t see banks operated by all-powerful AI agents—at least not in the next few years. The rollout will focus on specific use cases."

Citigroup is launching a conversational AI-based virtual wealth management assistant, able to provide clients with multi-language financial advice for scenarios ranging from certificate of deposit maturity processing to children’s education fund management.

Barclays is using AI to monitor customer service calls to improve efficiency rather than cut jobs—the bank disclosed in February that since the project launched last October, more than 8 million customer service calls have had summaries generated by generative AI. Digital bank Revolut recently introduced an in-app AI assistant called AIR, providing users with spending analysis and card control functions.

In recruitment, some job seekers have begun to specifically prepare for AI screening software. Yet Tom Lakin, Global Head of Future of Work at recruitment company Robert Walters, believes large-scale adoption of AI in bank interviews is unlikely, since the associated risks cannot be overlooked—at least one screening software company removed its facial analysis feature in 2021.

Graduates Under Pressure, Some Banks Maintain Recruitment Plans

For graduates seeking to enter the financial industry, the employment outlook is evidently tightening.

Timothy Lee, a student at the University of Warwick and head of its Business and Finance Society, noted that bank recruitment expanded continuously before the pandemic, "When banking was doing well, they hired more people, but now they don’t need as many." Another Warwick student, Andre Bonnick, said he is considering pursuing a Master’s degree to buy more time for job hunting.

However, some banks are still continuing recruitment plans. Bank of America stated it will welcome 2,000 summer interns and another 2,000 full-time new hires this month as scheduled, across eight business lines. But the bank also said the goal is to keep total headcount unchanged and use AI to boost operational efficiency—a statement that itself reflects the broader industry trend: using technology to increase efficiency instead of expanding manpower.

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