American Express will cut about 3,500 jobs, roughly 4.5% of its approximately 78,000 employees worldwide, the company said Friday alongside its third-quarter earnings. CFO Christophe Le Caillec said the restructuring is meant to make the company "leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI."
Amex has not said which departments or locations will be affected, and a spokesperson declined to give further details. It is the company's first major layoff round in nearly a decade. The quarter carried a $336 million pretax restructuring charge, or $253 million after tax and 37 cents a share, tied to efficiency initiatives.
CEO Stephen Squeri told analysts on the earnings call that the cuts are meant to streamline operations, raise productivity and speed up decisions, with fewer management layers. He said he had asked managers earlier this year to identify ways to improve operations.
“needed to become a more agile and efficient organization.”— Stephen Squeri, Chairman and CEO of American Express
Key facts
- 01American Express will cut about 3,500 of its roughly 78,000 employees worldwide, about 4.5% of headcount.
- 02Q3 included a $336 million pretax restructuring charge tied to efficiency initiatives.
- 03Q3 net income rose 28% to $3.71 billion on revenue of $20.1 billion, up 9%.
- 04Amex raised 2026 GAAP EPS guidance to $18.30 to $18.60 and expects about 10% revenue growth.
- 05Barclays said a day earlier it will cut 5,000 jobs, about 5% of its global workforce.
Le Caillec tied the flatter structure directly to automation. Fewer layers and wider spans of control, he said, are the setup for using AI across the business over the next several years.
“So what we're doing here is to reduce layers and increase spans of controls, so that we can automate and take advantage of AI in the coming quarters and the coming years.”— Christophe Le Caillec, CFO of American Express
The cuts come during a strong quarter. American Express reported net income of $3.71 billion, up 28% from $2.9 billion a year earlier, on revenue of $20.1 billion, up 9%. GAAP earnings per share rose 31% to $5.42, or $4.68 adjusted. Billed business grew 8% to $454 billion on a foreign-exchange-adjusted basis, down from 9% growth in the first half of the year.
Amex raised its full-year GAAP EPS guidance to $18.30 to $18.60, or $17.60 to $17.90 adjusted. Expenses rose 9% to $14.5 billion, including an 11% increase in marketing spend. The quarter also included a gain from the sale of its GBTG travel services business and a $350 million penalty to settle an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency action over alleged anti-money laundering failures.
On the customer side, Squeri focused on how cardholders will use AI to consume Amex services, citing personalized restaurant services for premium cardholders who book through Resy and the use of ChatGPT to tailor restaurant and travel pitches. The earnings release noted new Resy integrations, including with OpenAI, and the company's Intent Intelligence framework for trusted agentic commerce.
Squeri said Amex will add more AI agents to its platform, responding to Brex and Ramp, which use AI agents and automation in corporate card and expense management. Capital One acquired Brex this year.
American Express joins a string of financial firms trimming staff. Barclays said a day earlier it will cut 5,000 jobs, about 5% of its global workforce, by year-end, with CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan tying the cuts to technology investment. Citigroup cut about 20,000 jobs earlier this year, and Standard Chartered plans to eliminate about 7,800 roles, 15% of its workforce, by 2030.
In the earnings release, Squeri said the company is "on track to deliver another year of 10 percent revenue growth."
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