Barclays to axe 5,000 jobs in huge blow to City as AI replaces workers

The job losses, which will be a blow to the City, are expected to happen this year as the bank turns to AI to make it more efficient.The City is facing job losses due to AIAFP/GettyThe banking group said the job reductions were equivalent of about 5% of all its employees, which totalled around 93,000 globally at the end of 2025.Some 1,000 of the roles were cut during the first half of 2026, and the remainder are spread out over the second half of the year.The majority of the job losses relate to operational and functional roles across the bank.Group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, known within the bank as Venkat, said this was “a result of the investments which we’ve made into technology over a number of years and which we continue to make”.This has seen the adoption of AI to make some work processes more efficient, which has meant the bank can employ fewer roles such as developers.Barclays Bank HQ in Churchill Place, Canary Wharf London UKThe grim news came as Barclays revealed its profits grew by more than a 10th in the third quarter after cutting business costs and cashing in on stock market trading.The banking group reported a pre-tax profit of £2.3 billion for the three months to the end of September, which was 12% higher than the same period a year ago.Income from both its UK retail and corporate banks increased, as well as from its wealth management arm and investment bank.The investment bank, which generated the highest income of all the divisions at £3.1 billion, has benefited from a stronger performance for equity trading in global stock markets this year.Read MoreMayor of London Lord Sadiq Khan has warned of the threat from AI to jobs in the capitalPAIn an indepth analysis, City Hall highlighted how the capital’s labour force is at greater risk from artificial intelligence than any other region in Britain.It stressed that more than 300,000 Londoners, mainly in routine administrative roles, are “highly exposed” and at most immediate risk of automation, with AI now capable of performing a large share of their daily work.A further 748,000 Londoners are believed to be ‘significantly exposed’, with some parts of their roles highly automatable by AI.The research highlighted that jobs at “high exposure” to AI included administrative staff, brokers, payroll managers and bookkeepers.Economists, financial advisers, accountants, marketing executives, customer services workers and software developers are among the groups at “significant exposure,” it added.Nearly half of London’s workers (46% or around 2.4 million) are in roles where GenAI could automate a “meaningful share” of their tasks, significantly higher than the UK average of 38%.The report stressed that there were early signs already appearing of slowing recruitment for some of the most exposed admin and professional roles, although the evidence then on this trend was “still inconclusive”.