Barclays is to cut 5,000 jobs that will be replaced by AI in one of the biggest tech-driven employment culls yet seen in the UK.
The bank said it had already removed 1,000 supporting roles in the first half of the year, which included many developers. It expects to cut 4,000 more roles in the second half.
The redundancies will push Barclays' restructuring costs to around £600m this year, double what it had planned to spend. However, the job cuts will help it save more than £1.1bn in 2027.
So far this year, the bulk of the cost savings have been in its UK bank, where they doubled from an average of £76m in 2024 and 2025 to £158m.
Barclays's plans are the latest in a string of AI-related job cuts announced by lenders.
Bill Winters, the boss of Standard Chartered, was criticised earlier this year for referring to AI replacing "lower-value human capital" as he announced 8,000 redundancies.
HSBC is planning to use AI to reduce the ranks of its UK financial advisers by almost 70pc , it emerged last month.
It comes as the City increasingly expects John Healey to raise taxes on banks in the Budget next week. This could be done by reversing cuts to the bank surcharge made by Jeremy Hunt, which would raise more than £2bn a year.
CS Venkatakrishnan, the chief executive of Barclays, noted that banks already paid a significant amount of tax, saying that any tax was a "question of proportion and of market signalling". However, he added that he appreciated that the Chancellor was in a difficult position.
He said: "He is the man in the arena and I deeply respect the responsibility on his shoulders and I wish him well."
Barclays revealed the job cuts as it reported £2.3bn in pre-tax profits for the third quarter, a 12pc increase from last year.
A weak performance in its fixed income trading business, where profits dropped by 19pc year on year, meant it missed City expectations. Stock trading income grew 47pc to £1.01bn thanks to recent market volatility.
The lender is moving towards giving its bankers more bonuses and lower fixed pay to reward good performance, which it expects to increase costs by £130m in 2027.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, the union that represents Barclays workers, said the bank was using AI as a smokescreen to push through redundancies.
She said: "Barclays workers deserve better than this. The company is using AI as an excuse to discard its loyal and long-suffering workforce.
"Employers should be focused on upgrading employees' skills so that they remain employed as new technology changes the workplace. Instead, Barclays is guilty of taking a short-term, knee-jerk approach."
A Barclays spokesman said: "We are positioning Barclays for the future, building the workforce and skills needed to deliver our strategy and meet the evolving needs of our customers and clients.
"In doing so we are committed to helping our colleagues develop and build rewarding careers, while meeting the changing needs of customers and clients and ensuring Barclays continues to succeed in the years ahead."
