Major UK bank cutting 5,000 jobs in favour of AI

They made £2.3bn profit in the last three months

The banking group, which has operations in the UK and overseas, confirmed that 1,000 jobs had already been axed and that a further 4,000 are expected by the end of this year.

Barclays said that these cuts are tech-driven and come as a result of AI making some work processes more efficient.

As per The Telegraph, the bank says it has already removed 60 per cent of its costs in supporting roles in the first half of the year.

Barclays offices in Canary Wharf, London. Image: Adobe Stock.

Many developers and some of the investment banking division are also affected. 

The outlet reports that Barclays had set out a target of £300m in cost savings earlier this year, but has achieved £600m instead.

Most of these savings have come at its UK operation where cost savings doubled from an average of £76m in 2024 and 2025 to £158m.

Barclays made £2.3bn profit in the latest three months it reported on.

The cuts amount to 5% of its global workforce with most of them among operational and functional roles.

Barclays isn't the only bank looking to AI to reduce costs, with HSBC also having plans to use it to reduce the ranks of its financial advisers in the UK.

Barclays group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said the job cuts were "a result of the investments which we've made into technology over a number of years and which we continue to make".