MUMBAI (Reuters) – DBS Group plans to cut 4,000 temporary jobs over the next three years as it expects artificial intelligence (AI) to increasingly take on roles carried out by humans, Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said on Monday.
The outgoing CEO, however, said 1,000 new positions will be added in AI.
“In my 15 years of being a CEO, for the first time, I’m struggling to create jobs. So far, I’ve always had a line of sight to what jobs I can create. This time I’m struggling to say how will I repurpose people to create jobs,” Gupta added.
Gupta is among the first major banking chiefs to lay out details of possible job losses due to AI.
A DBS spokesperson in an email to Reuters on Tuesday added the loss of 4,000 jobs would be temporary, contractual staff members working across their 19 markets on specific projects.
“We expect the reduction in workforce will come from natural attrition as these temporary and contract roles are completed over the next few years,” the spokesperson said, adding that the permanent staff across its operations would not be impacted.
DBS CEO Piyush Gupta is set to be succeeded by Tan Su Shan on March 28 to lead Southeast Asia’s biggest bank.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Mumbai and Shivangi Lahiri; Additional reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
