JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest bank by assets, is instructing managers to curb hiring as it pivots toward leveraging artificial intelligence to boost efficiency. CFO Jeremy Barnum told investors Monday that the bank wants leaders to “resist head count growth where possible and increase their focus on efficiency.”The directive comes after a significant expansion that saw the bank’s workforce grow by more than 23% over five years, reaching over 317,000 employees by the end of 2024.
AI to drive 10% staffing reduction in operations
Marianne Lake, CEO of consumer and community banking, projected a 10% reduction in headcount for operations teams handling fraud, payment processing, and account services. She credited AI advancements for enabling these cuts and suggested the reductions could be even more substantial.
“I would take the over on this projection and bet that we will deliver more,” Lake told investors during the bank’s annual presentation in New York City.Barnum emphasized that artificial intelligence would be key to eliminating redundancies. “It’s amazing stuff and we have high hopes for the efficiency gain,” he said, noting the technology benefits both amateurs and “professional computer scientists” alike.
Strategic hiring continues amid efficiency push
Despite the overall pullback, Barnum assured investors the bank will “continue to hire and invest in the high-certainty areas where there is a link between adding employees and growth revenue,” specifically mentioning bankers, advisors, and branches as strategic growth areas.
The new direction aligns with CEO Jamie Dimon’s comments earlier this year at a town hall meeting where he told employees that “attrition is your friend” and encouraged them to embrace job-replacing AI technologies.”We could be far more efficient, and we should always be thinking that way,” Dimon said, adding that “reducing bureaucracy literally will reduce cancer.”