AI & Work
Barclays expects to cut about 5,000 jobs this year, roughly 5% of its workforce, with most of the reductions falling on support functions, the British bank’s executives said Thursday, Oct. 22, as it reported third-quarter results.
About 1,000 of those roles have already gone, Chief Financial Officer Anna Cross said, according to Reuters, with the rest to be cut by the end of the year. City AM reported that the first 1,000 were cut in the first half and the balance is due in the third and fourth quarters. That split matters: most of the 5,000 are planned reductions still to come in the second half, not jobs that have already disappeared.
About 60% of the cuts will hit support functions, including developers, Reuters reported. Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan described the reductions to City AM as being “across the bank,” saying “they are primarily related to operational and functional roles that service our business.”
The job figures came from executives’ comments on the results day rather than from the written results announcement. Barclays’ third-quarter filing, submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 22, does not give a headcount or a number of job cuts.
What the results document says
The filing does describe the mechanism. Among its performance highlights, the bank lists “structurally reducing the cost base through expected technology-enabled FTE reductions, creating capacity for further investment in the business.” FTE refers to full-time-equivalent employees.
Barclays booked £201 million of structural cost actions in the third quarter, up from £93 million a year earlier, and said a further £300 million or so is planned for the fourth quarter. Structural cost actions are the restructuring charges a company takes now to lower its costs later. The bank reported about £550 million of cost-efficiency savings so far this year and is targeting gross efficiency savings of more than £2 billion over 2026 to 2028. It expects group total costs of about £18.5 billion this year.
How much is AI?
Several headlines on Thursday framed the cuts as AI-driven. Reuters described Cross’s comments as one of the clearest signs yet from a big bank of how AI is enabling firms to reduce headcount in support roles; that is the news agency’s characterization. Venkatakrishnan, for his part, played down AI’s contribution so far, telling City AM that its use was “the icing on the cake, not the cake.”
The written filing does not attribute the reductions to artificial intelligence specifically. It refers to “technology-enabled” reductions, and it mentions AI elsewhere only in a list of forward-looking risk factors. Barclays has not said how many of the 5,000 roles are being replaced by software, how many are vacancies left unfilled, or how many are layoffs. Nor did it break the cuts down by country in the materials reviewed.
Will Howlett, an analyst at Quilter Cheviot, told Reuters that “the cuts illustrate just how significantly AI and automation could reshape the banking industry over the next few years.” That is an outside forecast, not a finding about Barclays’ own job losses.
The quarter behind the cuts
Profit before tax for the three months through September was £2.32 billion, up 12% from £2.08 billion a year earlier, according to the filing. Reuters and City AM both reported that the figure fell short of analysts’ expectations. Investment-bank income of £3.1 billion came in below a forecast of £3.3 billion, as fixed-income trading revenue fell 19% to about £1 billion, while equities revenue rose 47%, Reuters reported.
“I am disappointed, and you can be sure this will get my attention,” Venkatakrishnan said of the fixed-income result, according to Reuters. The bank also announced a new £500 million share buyback.
What it means for workers
For bank employees, the clearest signal is where the reductions are concentrated: operations, technology and other support work rather than customer-facing or revenue-generating roles. Software developers are named among the affected support staff, a reminder that technology jobs inside large companies are not insulated when those companies automate their own processes.
The bank’s targets run through 2028, and it says the savings are meant to fund further investment. Barclays has not said whether it plans further reductions after this year.
Sources
- Barclays PLC, “Q326 Results Announcement” (Form 6-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), October 22, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000312069/000165495426009079/a9532z.htm
- Reuters via BusinessDay, “Barclays to slash 5,000 jobs in AI-powered cost-cutting drive,” October 22, 2026. https://www.businessday.co.za/world/international-companies/2026-10-22-barclays-to-slash-5000-jobs-in-ai-powered-cost-cutting-drive/
- City AM, “Barclays to axe 5,000 jobs in 2026 after banking on AI savings,” October 22, 2026. https://www.cityam.com/barclays-profit-misses-after-investment-bank-comes-up-short/
Featured photo: 1 Churchill Place, Barclays' headquarters building in Canary Wharf, London, photographed at dusk on Oct. 9, 2013. Photo: mattbuck, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
