Barclays to cut about 5,000 jobs by end-2026 in AI efficiency drive

Barclays plans to cut around 5,000 jobs, or roughly five percent of its global workforce, by the end of 2026, the British bank said, describing the reduction as part of an efficiency drive built on artificial intelligence. The announcement came alongside an earnings update showing net profit grew 13 percent in the third quarter.

The bank said it was implementing "organisational simplification and technology change efficiency driven by AI". About 60 percent of the losses fall in support functions, it said, "including fewer developers as AI makes our people more productive".

For Pakistan, the announcement is a signal of how global banks are reshaping their cost bases around automation rather than a direct hit to local operations; the source material did not specify how the cuts would be distributed by country or business line. Barclays has no large retail presence in Pakistan, and the figures given cover the group as a whole.

The move places Barclays among international lenders restructuring support and technology roles as AI tools take on work previously done by staff. The source did not say whether the reduction would be achieved through redundancies, attrition or a combination, nor did it give a cost figure for the programme.