Singapore’s largest bank indicates that it plans to reduce 4,000 roles over the next three years while artificial intelligence (AI) takes more work currently done by humans.
“Reduction of the workforce will come from natural attrition while temporary and contractual roles take place in the coming years,” DBS spokesperson told the BBC.
Permanent staff should not be affected by the cuts. The outgoing managing director of the bank, Piyush Gupta, also said that he was planning to create around 1,000 new IA -related jobs.
He made DBS one of the first major banks to offer details on how AI will affect its operations.
The company has not said how many jobs would be cut in Singapore or what roles would be affected.
DBS currently has between 8,000 and 9,000 temporary workers and contract workers. The bank employs a total of around 41,000 people.
Last year, Mr. Gupta said that DBS has been working on AI for more than a decade.
“Today we deploy more than 800 AI models in 350 use cases, and we expect the measured economic impact to exceed $ 1 billion ($ 745 million; 592 million pounds sterling) In 2025, “he added.
Mr. Gupta is expected to leave the company at the end of March. The current Deputy Managing Director Tan Su Shan will replace him.
The continuous proliferation of AI technology has put its advantages and risks under the spotlight, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in 2024 that it should affect almost 40% of all jobs in the world.
IMF general director Kristalina Georgieva said that “in most scenarios, the AI will probably worsen global inequalities”.
The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, told BBC last year that AI would not be a “mass destructive jobs” and that human workers will learn to work with new technologies.
Mr. Bailey said that there are risks with AI, “there is great potential with that”.
