Artificial intelligence is no longer just a support tool for banks. It is starting to reshape the kind of people banks hire and the jobs they keep. JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon has now openly acknowledged that AI will eventually reduce headcount at the bank as automation spreads across the financial sector.
Speaking at JPMorgan’s China Summit in Shanghai, Dimon said the bank would increasingly hire AI specialists while reducing hiring in some traditional banking roles. “There will be all different types of jobs, and I think we will be hiring more AI people and fewer bankers in certain categories, and it will make them more productive,” he said. Dimon also added, “I think it will reduce our jobs down the road.”
AI replacing routine banking work
JPMorgan, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, is already preparing for that transition. Dimon said the bank’s annual staff attrition rate of around 10 per cent, roughly 25,000 to 30,000 employees leaving every year would help the lender gradually manage workforce changes without mass layoffs. Instead, the bank plans to rely on retraining, redeployment and early retirement as AI takes over more functions. Banks are increasingly using AI for customer service, fraud detection, compliance checks, coding support and back-office operations that previously required large human teams.
Global banks accelerate AI-driven restructuring
The transition is already triggering restructuring moves across major financial institutions. Standard Chartered recently announced plans to cut around 7,000 jobs over the next four years while expanding investments in technology and automation. Chief executive Bill Winters said the bank was replacing “lower-value human capital” with technology and investment spending.
Dimon appeared to soften those remarks, saying Winters had expressed the idea in “an inartful way”, while adding that “all of us say something incorrectly”. At HSBC, chief executive Georges Elhedery recently warned employees not to resist the bank’s AI rollout plans. “We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs,” Elhedery said.
Fintechs and lenders race to deploy AI tools
The push towards AI is not limited to traditional banks. Digital lenders and fintech firms are also moving aggressively into automation. Lloyds Banking Group has partnered with Google to develop AI agents, while fintech firms Revolut and Starling Bank have launched AI-powered financial assistants aimed at handling customer queries and financial management tasks.
Executives across the sector increasingly believe that AI will fundamentally change banking operations over the next decade. Earlier this year, John Waldron described many traditional back-office roles as a “human assembly line” that could eventually be automated.