DBS Bank, one of Asia's largest banks, to cut 4,000 jobs to replace them with AI

Artificial intelligence to replace employees. DBS Bank, Singapore's largest bank, has announced plans to cut around 4,000 jobs over the next three years as artificial intelligence (AI) takes over more of the tasks currently performed by its employees, the BBC reports.

The move will only affect the bank's temporary staff, a bank spokesman said, with the reduction in staff coming from "natural attrition" as projects end. Permanent staff are therefore not affected by the job cuts.

Piyush Gupta, the bank’s chief executive who will step down at the end of March, also said the bank plans to create about 1,000 new AI-related jobs. That makes DBS, which is Southeast Asia’s largest lender , one of the first major banks to publicly disclose details of how AI will affect its operations.

“Over the next three years, we anticipate that AI could reduce the need to replenish approximately 4,000 temporary/contract employees across our 19 markets working on specific projects,” the DBS spokesperson said. “We therefore expect the workforce reduction to come from natural attrition as these temporary and contract positions are completed over the next few years.”

DBS, which has been working on AI for more than a decade, currently employs between 8,000 and 9,000 temporary and contract staff, for a total of about 41,000 employees. The elimination of these positions would therefore reduce the Singaporean bank's headcount by 10%.

“In my 15 years as a CEO, for the first time, I am struggling to create jobs. Until now, I have always had a clear idea of ​​the jobs I can create,” Piyush Gupta said, according to Reuters. “Now I am wondering how I am going to reorient people towards creating jobs,” he added.

In 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) claimed that AI is expected to affect nearly 40% of all jobs worldwide. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that “in most scenarios, AI is likely to worsen global inequality.”

A Bloomberg Intelligence report last month said global banks are expected to shed up to 200,000 jobs over the next three to five years as AI encroaches on tasks currently performed by humans.