Barclays will cut about 5,000 jobs by the end of 2026, roughly 5% of its workforce, as the British bank uses AI and other technology to lower its fixed costs. Barclays disclosed the plan alongside its third-quarter results on Thursday, and its earnings presentation tied the reductions to "organisational simplification and technology change efficiency driven by AI."
About 60% of the cuts will fall on support functions, a group that includes software developers. Chief financial officer Anna Cross said roughly 1,000 roles have already been eliminated, with the remainder due by year-end. Barclays employed about 93,000 people at the end of 2025.
Cross pointed to productivity as the driver when the cuts were announced. She also told analysts that Barclays UK is the division where the bank has taken more structural cost actions in 2026 than it originally planned.
“AI makes our people more productive.”— Anna Cross, Barclays Chief Financial Officer
Key facts
- 01Barclays plans to cut about 5,000 jobs, roughly 5% of its workforce, by the end of 2026.
- 02About 60% of the cuts fall on support functions, including software developers.
- 03Around 1,000 roles have already been eliminated, with the rest due by year-end.
- 04Barclays booked £201 million of structural cost actions in Q3 and plans another £300 million in Q4.
- 05Q3 pre-tax profit rose 12% to £2.3 billion, below analyst forecasts of about £2.4 billion.
The cost figures behind the program are growing. Barclays booked £201 million of structural cost actions in the third quarter, up from £93 million a year earlier, and plans another £300 million in the fourth quarter. The bank describes the effort as "structurally reducing" costs through "technology-enabled" headcount reductions.
Chief executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan described AI as the "icing on the cake" on top of a longer technology build-out at the bank, framing the job plan as the payoff from years of spending rather than a sudden pivot.
“a result of the investments which we've made into technology over a number of years and which we continue to make.”— C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays Chief Executive
Barclays has been widening its use of AI tools this month. In October the bank announced an expanded collaboration with Anthropic to apply AI across its operations, including software development and the modernization of legacy systems. Coding is one of the most common business uses of AI, and developer roles sit inside the support functions taking the largest share of the Barclays cuts.
The job plan arrived with a mixed quarter. Pre-tax profit rose 12% to £2.3 billion but missed analyst forecasts of about £2.4 billion, as fixed income trading revenue fell 19% to £1 billion against expectations of £1.3 billion. Equities revenue rose 47%, investment bank income reached £3.1 billion versus a £3.3 billion forecast, and Barclays announced a £500 million share buyback.
The cuts extend a restructuring plan Barclays launched in early 2024, which targeted £2 billion in cost savings by 2026 and a cost-to-income ratio in the high 50s. The group reported a 54% cost-to-income ratio in the second quarter of 2026, down from 59% a year earlier.
Barclays joins a list of companies that have cited AI in workforce reductions this year, including Snap and Coinbase. JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon has said his bank will likely hire fewer bankers and more "AI people." Barclays is also the first major European lender to report third-quarter earnings.
“The cuts illustrate just how significantly AI and automation could reshape the banking industry over the next few years”— Will Howlett, Financials analyst at Quilter Cheviot
In July, Barclays said stronger first-half profitability would fund further cost actions in the second half of 2026 and give the bank more flexibility in its cost base from 2027. The remaining job cuts are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
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