DBS is reportedly planning around 4,000 redundancies over the next three years, as the bank looks to replace roles with AI.

Although the Singaporean bank, which currently employs around 41,000 people, did not provide further details on where the jobs are located, a spokesperson told the BBC on Tuesday that layoffs will not impact permanent staff.

"Over the next three years, we envisage that AI could reduce the need to renew about 4,000 temporary/contract staff across our 19 markets working on specific projects," the DBS spokesperson told the BBC.

DBS, which currently employs between 8,000 and 9,000 temporary and contract workers, came to this decision because many projects involving temporary workers have reached their natural completion and therefore no longer require workers, the spokesperson added.

However, the bank's chief executive Piyush Gupta, who will leave the company in March, said that the company intends to create around 1,000 new jobs as the firm continues to develop AI capabilities.

During a speech at an event in Mumbai earlier this week, Gupta talked about the growth of AI, highlighting that the technology is “very powerful” in its ability to self-create and imitate.

He stated that AI is ‘different to other technologies in the past, pointing to the fact that there have been no job cuts at DBS in the past 10 years.

"In my 15 years as CEO, for the first time, I am struggling to create jobs,” he said, as reported by Reuters. “So far, I've always had a line of sight to what jobs I can create. This time I'm struggling to say how I will repurpose people to create jobs."

DBS has been implementing AI as part of its digital transformation journey since 2014.

In a statement in 2023, the company’s chief information officer Jimmy NG said that its approach has focused on three main pillars: being digital all the way, fitting into the customer journey, and operating as a start-up.

By 2023, the bank had developed over 600 AI/ML models and 300 use cases, aiming to boost customer value and provide a competitive advantage. It has also created internal platforms such as ADA (Advancing DBS with AI) and ALAN (AI protocol and knowledge repository) to industrialise AI at scale.

Over the past few years, a number of banks have cut jobs as a result of technology advancements or wider economic factors.

In January, research from Bloomberg Intelligence found that banks around the world are set to cut 200,000 roles in the next three to five years due to AI taking over tasks currently done by humans.

Following a study of chief information and technology officers, the data research arm of Bloomberg said that by 2030 executives expect a net three per cent of their employees to be axed.

The research also found that back and middle office roles, as well as those working in operations, are most at risk.

It followed a survey by the Bank of England published in November last year which found that 75 per cent of financial services companies are already using AI, with a further 10 per cent planning to use the technology over the next three years. The results demonstrated a significant hike on the 58 per cent of firms using AI in 2022.

Last October, Santander said it was planning to axe more than 1,400 UK jobs in a bid to cut costs.

During a press conference attended by UK media, the bank’s chief executive Hector Grisi said that the move forms part of plans to automate more of its operations.

In February, Deutsche Bank announced plans to cut 3,500 roles from its workforce.

The job cuts formed part of Deutsche Bank's € 2.5 billion cost-saving operational efficiency programme, which saved € 1.3 billion last year.

At the time, the bank said it expected the remaining savings to be driven by measures relating to infrastructure and technology efficiencies, which would ultimately lead to job losses.

These measures included application de-commissioning and operating model improvements, optimisation of the bank's platform in Germany, and front-to-back process redesign, including simplified workflow and automation.

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