{"id":485225,"date":"2026-03-20T04:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T04:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485225\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T04:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T04:26:10","slug":"banking-giant-plots-20000-layoffs-in-huge-ai-overhaul-as-jobs-apocalypse-spreads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485225\/","title":{"rendered":"Banking giant plots 20,000 layoffs in huge AI overhaul as jobs apocalypse spreads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fears of an AI-driven jobs cull on Wall Street are intensifying after banking giant HSBC revealed it is weighing sweeping layoffs that could hit up to 20,000 workers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The London-based lender is considering cutting around 10 percent of its global workforce as part of a major push to replace human roles with artificial intelligence, according to reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are now growing fears rivals could follow suit – with major lenders such as Bank of America, JPMorgan and\u00a0Citigroup all investing heavily in AI and under pressure to slash costs in the same way.<\/p>\n

Chief financial officer Pam Kaur delivered the chilling warning at a Morgan Stanley conference, saying the bank is focused on the ‘benefits we can get through AI’ – whether tackling ‘staff-related inflation<\/a>‘ or boosting productivity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That aligns with HSBC boss Georges Elhedery’s push to use AI to shrink their middle and back offices, with Bloomberg reporting that up to 20,000 jobs could be affected – particularly non-client-facing roles in global service centers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a wave of layoffs for AI has already begun in the US<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Dorsey kicked off the wave in February, axing 4,000 workers – roughly half of Block’s workforce – saying he would rather make deep cuts now than carry out staggered layoffs as AI reshapes the business.<\/p>\n

It was followed by Australian tech entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes slashing more than 1,600 jobs at Atlassian in an AI-driven shake-up.<\/p>\n

\"Fears <\/p>\n

Fears of an AI-driven jobs cull on Wall Street are intensifying after banking giant HSBC revealed it is weighing sweeping layoffs that could hit up to 20,000 workers<\/p>\n

\"That <\/p>\n

That aligns with HSBC boss Georges Elhedery’s push to use AI to shrink their middle and back offices<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The London-based lender is considering cutting around 10 percent of its global workforce as part of a major push to replace human roles with artificial intelligence, according to reports<\/p>\n

\"Chief <\/p>\n

Chief Financial Officer Pam Kaur delivered the chilling warning at a Morgan Stanley conference, saying the bank is focused on the ‘benefits we can get through AI’<\/p>\n

Then this week, reports emerged suggesting Meta could cut as much as 20 percent of its workforce<\/a>\u00a0as the company that owns Facebook pours billions into artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

HSBC’s plans are still under discussion, and no final decision has been made.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But insiders say the cuts could be rolled out over the next three to five years as part of a sweeping cost-cutting drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are fears that other big US banks could follow HBSC’s example and begin their own AI cull.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stephanie Alston, the CEO of BGG Enterprises, a recruitment agency, told the Daily Mail this wasn’t an ‘isolated move’.<\/p>\n

‘Banks have been quietly investing in automation for years, but what is changing now is the scale and speed,’ Alston said. ‘AI is moving from back-office efficiency into decision-making, risk analysis, customer service and even compliance functions.’<\/p>\n

She said one of the biggest concerns is the mix of job displacement and the fact that AI regulation still hasn\u2019t caught up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When companies move faster than the legal and ethical rules meant to guide them, it can put both workers and consumers at risk.<\/p>\n

Join the debate<\/p>\n

Do YOU fear AI is about to wipe out thousands of jobs like this?<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie <\/p>\n

Stephanie Alston, the CEO of BGG Enterprises, told the Daily Mail that banks are now accelerating in scale and speed with AI and that it will definitely reshape the workforce<\/p>\n

Since banking is already heavily regulated, but AI governance is still pretty new, Alston pointed out that there aren\u2019t always clear violations under current laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That gray area can end up creating a lot of legal risk.<\/p>\n

‘If this trend accelerates, we are likely to see US banks follow a similar path, especially under continued pressure to cut costs and improve margins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The key question is not whether AI will reshape the workforce. It already is,’ Alston said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Job cuts in the US have surged to their highest level since the Great Recession<\/a>, according to a report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.<\/p>\n

Employers announced 108,435 layoffs in January – a 118 percent jump from the 49,795 cuts recorded in the same month last year, and a 205 percent spike from December’s 35,553.<\/p>\n

Analysts said the total marks the highest January figure since 2009, when 241,749 job cuts were announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fears of an AI-driven jobs cull on Wall Street are intensifying after banking giant HSBC revealed it is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,97,22411,163,388,86,81134,1715,56,54,55,8970],"class_list":["post-485225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-dailymail","tag-hsbc","tag-jack-dorsey","tag-london","tag-technology","tag-the-block","tag-twitter","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-yourmoney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}