DBS Group, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, plans to cut 4,000 jobs over the next three years due to the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, Reuters reported. The announcement was made by CEO Piyush Gupta on February 24, 2025.
“We expect to reduce about 4,000 employees, or 10% of our workforce, over the next three years. However, we will create 1,000 new AI-related positions,” Gupta said.
Mr. Gupta admitted that for the first time in his 15 years as CEO, he has struggled to create new job opportunities as AI replaces many traditional roles. Mr. Gupta is expected to be replaced by Ms. Tan Su Shan on March 28, who will take over as leader of Southeast Asia’s largest bank.
DBS is known to be the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets and among the largest banks in Asia, with total assets of SGD 739 billion as of December 31, 2023. The bank has just been honored by Global Finance of the US as “Safest Bank in Asia”.
DBS’s move reflects a growing trend in the global financial industry as AI reduces the role of many workers. It is predicted that banks around the world could cut up to 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years due to the impact of AI. A survey of chief information and technology officers found that they expect to cut an average of 3% of their workforce in the near future.
Expert Tomasz Noetzel said that departments that perform administrative work of the enterprise (back office), in charge of risk management and calculating profits and losses (middle office) and some service activities are most likely to be at risk.
“Any job that involves routine, repetitive tasks is at risk of being replaced,” Noetzel said. “But AI won’t replace it entirely. Instead, it will lead to a transformation of the workforce.”
So the new trend is not entirely negative for the labor market. Technology will mainly transform job roles rather than make many human resources positions suffer.
According to Fortune, in recent years, many banks have spent a lot of money and human resources to modernize information technology systems, speed up processes, and cut costs. Most of them apply AI to different degrees.
For example, Citi said in June 2024 that AI is likely to displace more jobs in banking than any other sector. “About 54% of high-potential banking jobs will be automated,” the company said.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, also sees AI as having the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for workers, even if it eliminates some jobs. “Your kids will live to be 100 and not get cancer because of technology,” Dimon said. “They’ll probably work three and a half days a week because of AI.”
Source: cafebiz.vn
Source: Vietnam Insider