In an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that every job will feel the effects of AI—including bankers.
“I think [AI will] reduce some of our jobs down the road,” Dimon told Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin. “I think we’ll be hiring more AI people and probably less bankers in certain categories.”
Dimon said that AI will cause reductions and downsizing at the company, but he said, “that’s been happening my whole life.” As AI changes jobs, the billionaire CEO said JPMorgan will retrain and redeploy employees, and in some cases, offer early retirement. Dimon also said that society needs to “get prepared” for how AI will change the workforce.
JPMorgan is using AI for numerous reasons already, Dimon said, including in marketing, risk, fraud and document management—but he said this is all just the “tip of the iceberg,” because AI is moving so quickly.
Dimon acknowledged that the banking space has changed with the introduction of fintech companies that traditional bankers have to compete with. JPMorgan’s own technology budget is now at $20 billion, Dimon said. Additionally, the company started tracking and ranking its engineers’ AI usage and performance on internal dashboards.
“We are investing that money to be competitive and do a better job for our clients,” Dimon added.
While the fundamental need to hold, move and invest money will remain constant, Dimon said that how people and banks will do it will look very different. For example, he said, more blockchain might be used, or there might be “more people in AI jobs and less people in certain jobs.”
While Dimon didn’t speak to specifics about the possibility of restructuring or layoffs at JPMorgan, other global banks are increasing investments in AI and planning sweeping changes to their workforces.
On Tuesday, Standard Chartered announced it would cut nearly 8,000 roles over the next four years to replace “lower-value human capital” with technology. Following backlash, the company’s CEO Bill Winters clarified the statement, saying: “Where roles do fall away, it reflects changes in the work, not the value of our people.” Dimon told Bloomberg that Winters’ initial claim was “inartful,” adding that AI will impact employees of all skill levels.
Several companies outside of the banking sector, like Meta and Cisco, have recently shed portions of their workforce to offset heavy AI spending. According to Dimon, the banking sector will not go untouched.