NatWest CEO warns AI will take some banking jobs as automation reshapes financial sector

NatWest CEO Thwaite says AI will take some banking jobs

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. As lenders around the world ramp up their usage of AI, a debate about whether the technology will lead to mass layoffs or simply change the nature of roles has been growing. A recent analysis from Morgan Stanley predicted that AI will lead the European banking sector reducing the size of its workforces by 10%, or 200,000 jobs, within five years. But, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has stressed that his bank is focusing on shifting staff into new roles as AI shakes up traditional ways of working. Speaking at a business summit hosted by The Times, Thwaite said: "In effect there will be roles that currently exist that absolutely to all intents and purposes [will be] delivered by AI." Whether that will lead to NatWest reducing the size of its 60,000-strong workforce, Thwaite would not commit but said that it "is definitely going to change". HSBC chief Georges Elhedery has expressed similar sentiments, predicting that AI "will destroy certain jobs and create new jobs". Patrick Sullivan, CEO of the Parliament Street think tank hit out at Thwaite's comments, saying: "Another day, another city chief scaremongering the workforce without due consideration for the consequences. What we need from finance chiefs is a clear action plan for how tools like AI will reshape the jobs market and turbocharge the economy." How banks talk about AI and staffing levels has come under scrutiny after Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winter said the tech will take the jobs of some "lower-value human capital," as he outlined plans for nearly 8000 job cuts. Following widespread pushback, including from some other bank leaders, Winters moved to clarify the comments, telling staff in a memo: "Where roles do fall away, it reflects changes in the work, not the value of our people."

NatWest CEO Says AI Will Take Over Some Existing Banking Roles | PYMNTS.com

Speaking at a business summit hosted by The Times, Thwaite said, per the report: "In effect there will be roles that currently exist that absolutely to all intents and purposes [will be] delivered by AI." The Daily Mail also reported on Thwaite's remarks and added that NatWest employs a growing number of people in roles related to software and AI. The PYMNTS Intelligence report "Financial Services Pulls Ahead in the Enterprise AI Race" found that 85% of financial services and insurance firms with at least $1 billion in annual revenue plan to increase their AI budgets over the next 12 months. The most adopted AI tasks among these firms are revenue recognition and accounting close, credit risk assessment and scoring, and sales forecasting and pipeline optimization. The share of firms using AI for these tasks was gauged at 65%, 60% and 60%, respectively, according to the report. "The industry's most adopted use cases cluster in structured, auditable back-office functions: the internal operations that keep a business running but that customers never directly see," the report said. PYMNTS reported June 2 that Nvidia's State of AI in Financial Services: 2026 Trends report that nearly 90% of financial institutions are deploying or assessing AI and that 65% already use it. It was reported Thursday (June 18) that Denis Roux, Deutsche Bank's chief information officer, investment bank, said that AI is enabling the bank to cut the completion time of some tasks from two years to as little as three months. Roux said in the report that Deutsche Bank uses simpler models for routine tasks, is cautious about deploying AI for everything, and is currently developing AI tools to automate the extraction and analysis of financial data and to link external events to the bank's portfolio to gauge its exposure. JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in May that the bank may eventually hire more AI experts than bankers. "I think it will reduce our jobs down the road," Dimon said. "There will be all different types of jobs, and I think we will be hiring more AI people and fewer bankers in certain categories, and it will make them more productive." For all PYMNTS AI and digital transformation coverage, subscribe to the daily AI and Digital Transformation Newsletters.