New to this? Read it in simple words
- The British bank Barclays will cut about 5,000 jobs, about 5% of its staff.
- About 60% of the cuts are in support jobs, including software developers.
- The bank says AI makes its people more productive, but calls AI only “the icing on the cake”.
- Its profit rose 12% in the same quarter.
- Support functions
- Jobs that keep a company running behind the scenes, such as IT, finance and human resources.
- Consultation
- Talks a British employer must hold with staff or their representatives before it cuts jobs.
- Productivity
- How much work a person gets done in a given time.
Barclays is one of Britain’s biggest banks, with about 93,000 staff around the world. On Thursday, October 22, it reported its results for the third quarter and said it would cut about 5,000 jobs.
Who will be affected
The cuts come from cost-saving steps that Barclays took in 2026, and they affect about 5% of its employees. Each case is still subject to consultation with staff, the bank’s results slides say.
“Around 60% of the group actions relate to support functions, including fewer developers as AI makes our people more productive,” said Anna Cross, the bank’s finance chief.
About 1,000 jobs have already gone since the start of the year, the Guardian reports. The bank expects more than £1.1 billion of savings in 2027.
From Barclays’ results documents of October 22, with the Guardian’s report.
How big a role AI plays
Barclays’ slides describe the cuts as simpler organisation and “technology change efficiency driven by AI”. In its British retail bank, better apps cut call-centre calls by 10% in the past year.
The chief executive, C.S. Venkatakrishnan, was more careful. Investment in technology and simpler processes is “driving the bulk of the efficiency gains” so far, he told reporters, the Guardian reports.
“We will employ AI at scale: but AI is the icing on the cake, not the cake,” he said on the results call.
Profits up, and a union’s anger
The bank’s profit before tax rose 12% to £2.3 billion in the quarter, the Guardian reports, and it will hand another £500 million to shareholders.
The Unite union said the bank was using AI as an excuse to cut staff. It said employers should train workers in new skills instead.
Bloomberg reports that the cuts are part of a “technology-enabled” push to lower costs as the bank adopts AI across its business.
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.
- 1
- 2
- 3Research · October 22, 2026Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs as bank’s bosses hail AI productivity advances The Guardian
- 4Research · October 22, 2026Barclays to Cut 5,000 Jobs in AI-Fueled Push to Lower Costs Bloomberg (via Yahoo Finance UK)
- 5
The job numbers and the role of AI come from Barclays’ own results documents. How much of the cuts AI really causes is the bank’s own description, and its leaders put it in different ways.
Barclays will cut about 5,000 jobs, partly blaming AI, even as its quarterly profit rose 12%. How we rate the mood