Barclays to Cut Thousands of Jobs in AI Efficiency Push. 5% of The Company Will be Laid Off.

Barclays plans to eliminate about 5,000 jobs, roughly 5% of its global workforce, as the British bank turns to artificial intelligence and organizational changes to lower costs and free up money for investment.

The reductions, disclosed Thursday alongside its third-quarter results, will fall heavily on support operations. About 60% of the cuts are expected to affect support functions, including developers, according to the bank's earnings presentation.

The announcement puts technology workers among those exposed to the restructuring, alongside other employees supporting the bank's operations. Barclays described the changes as part of a broader effort to simplify its organization and improve efficiency through technology.

The bank expects the workforce reductions to be completed by the end of the year. Chief Financial Officer Anna Cross told reporters that approximately 1,000 positions had already been eliminated, with another 4,000 expected to go before year-end.

In its earnings statement, Barclays said it was "structurally reducing the cost base to generate capacity for investment." Its presentation also identified "organisational simplification and technology change efficiency driven by AI" as an outcome of the measures.

Those descriptions place artificial intelligence within a wider restructuring program. The disclosures do not establish that every eliminated position will be directly replaced by an AI system, or specify how many developer jobs will disappear.

Barclays reported third-quarter pretax profit of £2.3 billion, approximately $3.1 billion, an increase of 12% from a year earlier. Group income, however, came in at £7.4 billion, below analysts' expectations of £7.61 billion, leaving a shortfall of about £210 million.

Net interest income was broadly unchanged at £3.91 billion. The measure reflects the difference between what a bank earns on interest-bearing assets, including loans, and what it pays for funding, including customer deposits.

However, other indicators weakened as Barclays' Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio, a closely watched measure of its financial resilience, slipped to 14.2% from 14.3% at the end of the second quarter.

Return on tangible equity fell to 11.7% from 16.1%. That measure assesses profit against shareholders' tangible equity and is widely used to evaluate banks' profitability. Shares were almost 1% lower at 8:50 a.m. London time, less than an hour into Thursday's trading session. Revenue missed expectations, while the bank reported lower returns on tangible equity and a modest decline in its capital ratio.

Developers are explicitly included among the support roles affected, although the bank has not disclosed a separate target for that occupation. The timing also leaves a substantial portion of the reductions concentrated in the final months of the year. With around 1,000 positions already removed, most of the planned cuts remain ahead.