Barclays says it will cut 5,000 jobs this year, about 5% of staff, as AI makes work more efficient

Barclays says it will have cut around 5,000 jobs by the end of 2026, about 5% of its global staff. It has already closed 1,000 posts and expects the other 4,000 by December. Around 60% fall in support functions, including developers. The bank links the cuts to a technology programme and says AI is the icing on the cake, not the cake. Its chief executive says it will use AI at scale.

• If you employ people in admin, support or coding, list the tasks that are repetitive and ask what AI could do for them now, before a competitor does.
• If your own job is mostly repetitive office tasks, pick one task and learn to do it with an AI tool this month, so you are the person who knows how.

Source: BBC News. This is our short summary of their reporting. The paragraphs marked "Our read" and the things to do are SeedFoundry's opinion. The summary is drafted with AI tools. The picture is our own graphic. How we source and credit