Barclays to Cut About 5,000 Jobs in 2026 as It Expands Use of AI

Barclays plans to cut about 5,000 jobs this year, or around 5% of its workforce, executives said on Thursday as the bank reported third-quarter results, attributing the reductions partly to artificial intelligence. Around 60% of the cuts will fall on staff in support functions such as developers, Chief Financial Officer Anna Cross told reporters.

The cuts are one of the clearest signs yet of a major bank tying back-office headcount reductions to AI. Most of them are still to come: Barclays cut about 1,000 roles in the first half of the year, so the remaining roughly 4,000 are expected by December.

The bank's written results do not give a job number. They say Barclays is structurally reducing its cost base through expected technology-enabled reductions in full-time staff, to free up money for investment. Those structural cost actions totaled £201 million in the third quarter, up from £93 million a year earlier, with about £300 million more planned for the fourth quarter. Barclays UK, its retail bank, accounted for £110 million of the third-quarter charge, and the Investment Bank for £57 million.

They relate both to the simplification of the organization and to some of the impacts that we're starting to see from AI,

Cross told analysts, describing the changes in the third and fourth quarters. Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan told reporters the bank would use AI at scale, adding:

AI is the icing on the cake, not the cake.

The job reductions came alongside rising profit. Barclays reported third-quarter profit before tax of £2.3 billion, up 12% from a year earlier, while income from fixed income and currency trading fell 19%. It announced a new £500 million share buyback.

The bank expects total costs of about £18.5 billion in 2026 and £18.4 billion in 2027, and its 2028 targets include more than £2 billion in gross efficiency savings over 2026 to 2028.

A Barclays spokesperson said the bank is committed to helping colleagues build careers while meeting customers' changing needs. Banking Dive reported that the bank's executive committee plans to invest about £150 million in skills by 2030 and to prioritize existing employees for advertised roles.

Barclays did not say which countries or business units the cuts will hit, how many are in the UK, how many roles AI is directly replacing as opposed to wider reorganization, or how much of its restructuring charge is severance.

The bank has linked its cost plans to AI before. In February, when Barclays set its £2 billion savings target for 2026 to 2028, Venkatakrishnan said AI was a core part of its plans to become more efficient. Barclays also removed about 5,000 roles globally in 2023, citing fewer management layers and improved technology and automation.