Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs this year as AI makes work more efficient

The banking group said this is the equivalent of about 5% of all its employees, which totalled around 93,000 globally at the end of 2025. | ITV National News Barclays has revealed it expects to have cut around 5,000 staff by the end of 2026 after turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to make the bank more efficient. The banking group said this is the equivalent of about 5% of all its employees, which to

By the Truvace deskOctober 22, 20261 min read1 sourceJournalismTRV-2026-2194· cite & verify

Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs this year as AI makes work more efficient

In brief

Barclays disclosed that it expects to have reduced its headcount by about 5,000 people by the end of 2026. The bank links the reductions to its turn to artificial intelligence as a way of making operations more efficient.

The announcement matters because it ties a large banking workforce reduction directly to AI adoption, a sign of how automation may reshape white-collar employment. The supplied text is cut off, so it does not say which roles are affected, how the cuts will be carried out, or what efficiency gains are expected.

Main points

Barclays expects to have cut around 5,000 staff by the end of 2026.
The bank says the reduction follows its turn to artificial intelligence to improve efficiency.
The cuts equal about 5% of all employees, according to the banking group.
Barclays had around 93,000 employees globally at the end of 2025.

The problem

Barclays expects to have cut about 5% of its workforce, around 5,000 staff, by the end of 2026 after turning to AI to run more efficiently.

The rundown

The report, published on 22 October 2026, presents the cuts as an expectation for the year's end rather than a completed outcome. Barclays framed the reductions as the equivalent of about 5% of its workforce.

The workforce baseline given is around 93,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2025. Against that base, the 5,000 reduction is a sizeable change for a single year, and the bank attributes it to AI-driven efficiency.