The boss of JP Morgan said the Wall Street bank will hire more artificial intelligence specialists and fewer dealmakers amid increasing automation in the financial system.

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, raised the prospect of a greater focus on AI hires as global banks are using the technology to cut tens of thousands of jobs.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Dimon said: “I think it will reduce our jobs down the road. 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.”

Dimon’s comments came after Bill Winters, the boss of Standard Chartered, faced a backlash among shareholders, employees and the former president of Singapore for saying the bank would use AI to replace “lower-value human capital”. Dimon said Winters is “a friend of mine” and that “all of us say something incorrectly”, adding: “He’s already come back and taken that back. It was an inartful way to say something.”

Winters made the comments as he revealed plans to cut almost 8,000 back-office roles. Meanwhile, Georges Elhedery, chief executive of HSBC, has said the bank must ensure its workforce does not become “disenfranchised” as it uses AI to streamline administrative functions and weighs up plans to cut 20,000 jobs globally.

Dimon said: “I do think it’s incumbent upon us, society, to think through if it happens too fast, what do we do about it? You aren’t going to stop it all, you know. And you can talk all you want, do the work, get prepared, take care of your people, take care of society, and I think we’ll be ok.”

Deutsche Bank conducted research last year that found younger workers were concerned about AI, but that their older colleagues “aren’t bothered” by machine learning developments in Silicon Valley.

The German lender’s research division conducted a survey of 10,000 people, asking them to rate their level of concern about losing their job to AI on a scale of 0 to 10. Its survey found 24 per cent respondents aged between 18 and 34 gave a score of 8 or more, as compared to just 10 per cent aged 55 and above.

In a note, Deutsche Bank’s analysts said: “The findings revealed a generational and geographical gap in adoption and trust, strong demand for AI training, and workers’ efforts to educate themselves.”