Barclays is cutting around 5,000 jobs as the bank increases its use of artificial intelligence (AI). The bank said around 1,000 of the roles were axed during the first half of 2026 as part of a cost-cutting drive, with the remainder being spread out in the second half of this year.
Job cuts target operational roles
The majority of jobs affected are operational and functional roles. The job cuts make up around 5% of Barclays' total workforce, which stood at around 93,000 globally at the end of last year.
Group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, known within the bank as Venkat, said this was “a result of the investments which we’ve made into technology over a number of years and which we continue to make”. This has seen AI used to make some work processes more efficient.
AI's role in the bank's future
Venkat said: "AI has an important role to play and may have a more important role to play in the future. I’ve often said that it is the icing on the cake – it’s not the cake – because you need to do the infrastructure build to get the benefits of AI. Where the infrastructure is modern, we’ve been applying it here."
It comes as the banking group reported a pre-tax profit of £2.3billion for the three months to the end of September, which was 12% higher than the same period a year ago.
Budget speculation and bank taxes
The financial results come less than a week before Chancellor John Healey delivers his Budget, with reports suggesting that he is considering increasing taxes on banks. The biggest four banks collectively made about £15billion in profit in the first six months of this year.
This could see the Treasury reverse a reduction in the surcharge that banks pay on corporation tax, from 8% to 3%. Another option could be raising the bank levy - a small percentage charged on loans. Trade unions and think tanks have repeatedly lobbied for heavier taxation for banks.
Asked about the speculation, Venkat said: “We are already a bank which makes a lot of our money outside the UK so this is not a question of a financial hit to us – it’s bearable. It’s a question of proportion and it’s a question of market signalling. But I deeply respect the responsibilities that the Chancellor bares and he has our full support and backing.”
