HSBC and Standard Chartered have signalled deeper AI-driven restructuring across the banking sector, with executives warning that technology will eliminate some roles while creating new opportunities. According to Reuters, HSBC Chief Executive Georges Elhedery urged employees not to resist the growing adoption of artificial intelligence, acknowledging that the technology will both eliminate and create jobs as global banks accelerate workforce restructuring. Speaking at an HSBC investor day event beginning on 19 May, Elhedery said "We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs." He emphasized that "my initial mission is I need 200,000 colleagues with us on this journey. However many will be left at the end of the journey isn't the problem." The CEO stressed that the focus should be on ensuring employees are "not fighting us, not disenfranchised, not anxious, overwhelmed, and resisting the change" and are given "all the capabilities, the training, the tools to make themselves future ready, be more productive versions of themselves."
The remarks came as rival lender Standard Chartered sought to reassure employees after announcing plans to cut nearly 8,000 roles while increasing its use of AI and automation. As reported by Reuters, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters said the bank aims to reduce 15% of corporate function roles by 2030, describing some positions as lower-value human capital. The emerging market-focused lender said it would cut more than 7,000 redundancies out of the more than 52,000 people working in corporate function roles. Speaking during an investor day event, Winters said the jobs affected were mostly non-client facing and that the bank wanted to replace "lower-value human capital" with technology and other investments. Speaking at a Hong Kong investor event on 19 May, Winters said "We don't have job losses, but we do have job role reductions in favour of the machines, and that will accelerate as we go forward into AI." The comments sparked concern among staff, prompting Winters to later issue a memo stating that employees remained valued and any restructuring would be handled with thought and care.
According to Reuters, HSBC currently employs more than 211,000 people globally, while Standard Chartered has around 83,000 employees. A recent analysis by Morgan Stanley found that companies across banking, technology and professional services have reduced headcount by roughly 5% over the past year as AI adoption gathers pace. The report said offshore workers in countries such as India and Poland, along with younger employees and recent hires, have been most affected. The comments from HSBC and StanChart show the world's top financial institutions are increasingly cost sensitive and scrambling to integrate frontier AI models and fend off rising cyber threats. Japanese lender Mizuho unveiled up to 5,000 job cuts over a decade in March, while HSBC, which in March appointed David Rice as its first chief AI officer, has highlighted AI as the key to the bank's wider strategic goal of increasing returns via savings from automating and streamlining processes.
According to Reuters, Goldman Sachs informed employees last year about potential job cuts and slower hiring linked to AI adoption, according to an internal memo. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said in December that while the bank had not reduced staffing because of AI, it was getting a lot more done using the technology. The CEO of Norway's $2.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund warned in April that aggressive AI-led cost-cutting could trigger backlash if employees fear they are training systems that may eventually replace them. Research from King's College London found that six in 10 people in Britain believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates, while one in five think the technology could contribute to civil unrest. However, according to data from McKinsey, global banks plan to substantially increase AI investments over the next few years, with generative AI potentially adding between US$200bn and US$340bn in value annually across the entire banking sector. HSBC is deploying AI across multiple functions including customer onboarding and Know Your Customer function, financial risk and monitoring, contact centres, and wealth management to simplify operations and personalise content to customers.
