The clearest sign of where AI is replacing work is not in tech. It is in banking. A Reuters factbox of companies cutting jobs as their spending shifts toward AI, updated on 22 October, lists more than 30 firms since October 2025, and the two biggest banks on it outrank almost everyone else.
The biggest cuts on the list
- HSBC: up to 20,000, as an AI overhaul unfolds
- Amazon: 16,000 corporate jobs, in an AI- and efficiency-driven overhaul
- Standard Chartered: more than 7,000, in AI-driven streamlining
- HP: 4,000 to 6,000
- British American Tobacco: 5,500 jobs, with 3,500 roles moved to third parties
- Barclays: about 5,000, mostly in support functions
- Mizuho: up to 5,000
- Microsoft: 4,800
Further down, the list is full of financial firms: Sweden's SEB (up to 2,100, "restructuring to leverage AI"), Allianz (up to 1,800, "AI replacing manual work"), Danske Bank (420) and DNB (about 400). Block, the owner of Cash App, is cutting more than 4,000, nearly half its staff. Meta's workforce could shrink by up to 20%, and Pinterest is cutting up to 15% of its staff.
The figures are what each company announced or is reported to be weighing, over different periods, so they are not a single tally. Some cuts are partly about cost and only partly about AI.
