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Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs globally this year as it ramps up AI adoption
The banking group said it has already cut around 1,000 positions, with a further 4,000 job cuts expected to be completed by the end of this year.
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Barclays is cutting around 5,000 jobs globally by the end of 2026 as it increases its reliance on artificial intelligence (AI).
According to a report by the BBC, the banking group said it has already cut around 1,000 positions, with a further 4,000 job cuts expected to be completed by the end of this year. The reductions amount to around 5% of its global workforce, with most of the affected roles falling within operational and support functions.
Barclays Group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said the job cuts were linked to the bank’s investments in technology to simplify and improve its operations. He stressed that while AI would play an increasingly important role in the business, it was not the sole driver of the changes.
“We will employ AI at scale,” Venkatakrishnan told Bloomberg, adding, “But AI is the icing on the cake, not the cake.”
He explained that building the necessary technological infrastructure was essential to unlocking the benefits of AI, adding that such investments were driving most of the efficiency gains seen so far. “I’ve often said that it is the icing on the cake – it’s not the cake – because you need to do the infrastructure build to get the benefits of AI,” he said.
(Also Read: eBay layoffs 2026: Company to cut 1,000 jobs in second round of workforce reductions)
Support functions, developers among roles affected
Around 60% of the planned job cuts are expected to affect support functions, including developers, according to a report by Business Insider.
The cuts are a part of Barclays’ three-year cost-cutting programme, which has focused primarily on its UK retail banking operations, although its investment banking division has also been affected.
"With one quarter to go before the end of our original three-year plan, we have either achieved or are on track to achieve all of our 2026 group targets. We are confident in and committed to the 2028 targets that we laid out earlier in the year," Venkatakrishnan said in a statement.
The banking group also revealed that it made a profit of £2.3 billion for the three months to September. The figure was higher than the profit recorded during the same period a year earlier, but slightly less than forecast.
