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Standard Chartered plans to cut 7,000 jobs in AI push — lender wants to replace ‘lower-value human capital’ and focus on automation
British multinational bank Standard Chartered just announced that it will cut 15% of corporate roles through 2030 and replace 'lower-value human capital' with AI. According to a Reuters estimate, this accounts for about 7,000 positions across the bank’s 52,000 employees executing corporate functions, or more than 8.5% of its total workforce of 82,000. The lender made this announcement as it set higher goals for the same period, aiming to increase its return on tangible equity to 18% during the same period, 6% increase from what it achieved in 2025.
“It's not cost-cutting. It's replacing, in some cases, lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we're putting in,” CEO Bill Winters told the publication. “So, the people that want to reskill, that want to carry on, we're giving every opportunity to reposition.” It’s noted that the most affected sites would be the institution’s back offices, located in Chennai, India; Bengaluru, India; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Warsaw, Poland. "Of course, we're using AI along the way and AI will be a huge facilitator and enabler of that," he added, referring to its ongoing revamp to automate more of its core banking system,” Winters added.
Standard Chartered is joining the growing number of companies cutting their headcounts in favor of AI. The tech industry alone has cut nearly 80,000 positions during the first quarter of 2026, with almost half of them reportedly made redundant because of the technology. In fact, an MIT study said that AI can replace 11.7% of all U.S. workers, impacting every industry in every state. However, there have also been reports that the AI-driven layoffs were actually caused by poor business performance, with artificial intelligence being simply being used as a scapegoat for wrong decisions in the boardroom — a thought that OpenAI boss Sam Altman reiterated in a CNBC interview.
On the other hand, we’ve also seen reports coming from Europe that companies widely deploying AI tools and investing heavily in them are more likely to hire new people. It’s said that companies using AI properly tend to be more productive and increase their profitability, allowing them to hire more people as they expand their operations. Microsoft even released a study about this phenomenon called “Transformation Paradox,” in which only 20% of companies deploying AI are doing so effectively, with more than half of surveyed employees still unsure how their firms are going through the AI revolution.
Standard Chartered’s move to cut such a huge number of positions will certainly be a cause for concern for all affected employees. And even though the company is offering to retrain and reskill them, the uncertainty of whether or not they’ll still have a job in the coming years will stress a huge number of its staff as the bank transitions towards a more automated future.
Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
While it's possible the bank has too many workers, such a thing could happen only as the result of poor management. The other possibility is there are not too many workers but only poor management.
My observation is the labour market is quite competitive--especially in India--so a low wage doesn't mean low value but rather low wages imply high value per dollar.
In contrast to human labour, there are only four major providers of AI services. While AI prices currently look competitive, tokens will be priced at cartel-like levels in the near future. Said another way, negotiating fair rates with one of the four AI companies will be even more difficult than with the most powerful labour unions.
As disgusting as this sounds, the real key to the article is hidden in the main body of text:
It’s noted that the most affected sites would be the institution’s back offices, located in Chennai, India; Bengaluru, India; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Warsaw, Poland
So the company (which is worth pointing out, is a BANK, AKA the people who should be the best with money) already used cheaper foreign labour for services, and is now cutting them out to replace with AI.
As someone who has dealt with foreign correspondence for national companies, I don't see this as a huge loss. Now I will likely end up trying to work around an AI that doesn't know what it's talking about, compared to before, where I would end up trying to work around a HUMAN that doesn't know what they're talking about
