London: Barclays plans to cut around 5,000 jobs by the end of 2026 as the British banking group uses technology, including artificial intelligence, to reduce costs and improve financial returns. The planned reduction represents approximately 5 per cent of its workforce, with around 1,000 positions already eliminated and a further 4,000 expected to go before the end of the year.
Chief financial officer Anna Cross told reporters that approximately 60 per cent of the planned job cuts would affect support functions, including developers. The announcement provides a clearer picture of how the bank's efforts to improve efficiency are affecting its workforce as it expands its use of technology.
The bank is pursuing a broader cost reduction strategy aimed at simplifying its operations and reducing expenses, including staff costs. While artificial intelligence is becoming an important part of this effort, Barclays has not established that all 5,000 job cuts are directly attributable to AI.
The workforce reduction was announced alongside Barclays' third quarter financial results, which showed higher profits compared with the same period last year. The bank reported pre tax profit of £2.3 billion for the three months from July to September, up from £2.1 billion a year earlier. However, the result was slightly below the average analysts' forecast of £2.4 billion.
Barclays also announced a new £500 million share buyback programme. The programme allows the bank to purchase its own shares and forms part of its broader approach to managing shareholder returns.
The financial results showed mixed performance across the bank's investment banking operations. Total income from the investment bank reached £3.1 billion, below analysts' expectations of £3.3 billion. Equities revenue rose by 47 per cent, while income from fixed income trading fell by 19 per cent to approximately £1 billion.
The weaker performance in fixed income trading contributed to the investment bank's results falling short of expectations. Chief executive C. S. Venkatakrishnan said he was disappointed with the performance of the bank's traditional fixed income business, particularly amid volatile market conditions and weaker trading in interest rate and credit products.
Barclays has also been expanding its use of artificial intelligence through a partnership with Anthropic, the company behind the Claude family of AI systems. On October 1, Anthropic announced an expanded collaboration with the bank to support software development, modernise older technology systems and improve operational efficiency.
As part of this effort, Barclays expects Claude Code to be used by 50 per cent of its software developers by the end of 2026, with further expansion planned for 2027. The tool is designed to assist with software development tasks and forms part of the bank's wider technology modernisation programme.
The expansion of AI tools does not, by itself, establish how many employees will lose their jobs because of automation. Barclays has also been simplifying processes and investing in technology infrastructure, making it difficult to separate the effect of AI from other changes contributing to its cost reduction programme.
The bank's latest plans follow an earlier round of job cuts in 2023, when Barclays eliminated approximately 5,000 positions as part of a separate efficiency programme. The current reduction is a distinct round of workforce changes.
The planned job cuts come as major banks face pressure to improve productivity, manage operating expenses and respond to technological changes. For Barclays employees, the immediate questions concern which roles will be affected and how the remaining reductions will be implemented.
The bank expects to complete the planned workforce reduction by the end of December. However, a full breakdown of the affected locations and job categories, as well as the number of compulsory redundancies involved, has not been established in the information available.