5 minBusiness
Barclays to Cut 5,000 Jobs as Banks Push AI Efficiency
Barclays plans to eliminate about 5% of its workforce, with most cuts hitting support and developer roles, as financial institutions and other major companies redirect spending toward artificial intelligence.
Barclays is preparing to eliminate roughly 5,000 jobs, about 5% of its workforce, as the British bank restructures around artificial intelligence and technology-driven efficiency. The company disclosed the plan in its quarterly financial report, describing the move as part of an effort toward «organizational simplification and technology change efficiency driven by AI.»
Approximately 60% of the reductions will come from support functions, including developer roles, according to the bank. The cuts make Barclays one of the most prominent financial institutions to tie workforce reductions directly to AI adoption, a shift that is reshaping how major companies allocate resources as they build out the infrastructure needed to meet booming demand for artificial intelligence.
The trend extends well beyond Barclays. Norway's DNB and Germany's Commerzbank have also announced job cuts alongside pushes into AI, underscoring how aggressively banks are deploying the technology — in many cases at the expense of workers. Financial institutions have emerged as among the most active adopters of AI tools, using them to streamline processes, improve decision-making and reduce duplicative work.
At Kroger, the largest stand-alone U.S. supermarket chain, 3,000 corporate employees will be laid off over the next three years as the company ramps up its use of artificial intelligence. «Technology is reshaping what's possible,» CEO Greg Foran wrote in a memo to employees. «The way work gets done is changing across every industry; we must adapt and take advantage of technology.» The Cincinnati-based company, which operates more than 2,700 stores under brands including Ralphs, King Soopers, Smith's and Fred Meyer, outlined an AI strategy meant to improve the customer experience, make work easier for associates and produce better business outcomes.
Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, said it would lay off about 8,000 workers, or roughly 10% of its workforce, as it continues to ramp up spending on AI infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires. The company said the cuts were made for efficiency and to allow new investments, and it will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled. Meta has warned investors that its 2026 expenses will grow significantly — to as much as $169 billion — driven by infrastructure costs and compensation for artificial intelligence experts.
Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of U.S. employees, with offers planned for about 8,750 people, or 7% of its domestic workforce. The software giant has spent billions operating an expanding global network of data centers that power cloud computing, AI systems and its own productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot.
Standard Chartered plans to cut more than 15% of its back-office employees by 2030, saying it is «scaling practical uses of automation, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence to streamline processes, improve decision-making, and enhance both client service and internal efficiency.»
Coinbase is cutting approximately 14% of its workforce partly due to AI. CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post that engineers now use AI to ship in days what once took a team weeks, and that nontechnical teams are shipping production code. «We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native,» he wrote.
Pinterest announced in January that it planned to lay off under 15% of its workforce as part of a broader restructuring, reallocating resources to AI-focused roles and AI-powered products. Snap is eliminating about 16% of its global workforce, or roughly 1,000 jobs, and will not fill another 300 open roles, with CEO Evan Spiegel saying the reduction is designed to streamline operations and reallocate resources toward highest-priority initiatives.
Block, the financial technology company behind Square and Cash App, is laying off more than 4,000 of its 10,000-plus employees. «Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,» Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders, adding that a significantly smaller team using the tools Block is building can accomplish more.
The wave of announcements comes as spending on AI infrastructure becomes a central question for investors, with fears of a bubble in the sector growing. For workers, the impact is already clear: companies are repurposing money once spent on payroll so that more capital can be devoted to boosting AI capabilities.
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