Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, said on Thursday that artificial intelligence would eventually reduce headcount across the banking sector as lenders accelerate investment in automation and AI specialists.

Speaking to Bloomberg Television at the bank’s China Summit in Shanghai, Dimon said JPMorgan would “be hiring more AI people and fewer bankers in certain categories” as the technology reshapes operations across financial services. Reuters reported that Dimon said: “I think it will reduce our jobs down the road.” He added that AI would make employees “more productive”.

Speaking at the event, Dimon said JPMorgan’s annual staff attrition rate of around 10 per cent, equivalent to 25,000 to 30,000 employees, would allow the bank to manage workforce changes gradually through retraining, redeployment and early retirement rather than large-scale redundancies.

Dimon’s remarks follow a series of restructuring announcements across the sector as banks expand AI adoption. Standard Chartered this week said it planned to eliminate about 7,000 jobs over four years while increasing investment in technology and automation.

Bill Winters, chief executive of Standard Chartered, defended the bank’s strategy by saying it was “replacing, in some cases, lower-value human capital with the financial capital and investment capital we’re putting in”. Dimon told Bloomberg that Winters’ comments were “an inartful way to say something” and added that “all of us say something incorrectly”.

Similarly, Georges Elhedery, chief executive of HSBC, warned staff earlier this week not to resist the lender’s AI rollout plans. Elhedery said: “We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs.

The push towards AI is spreading across both traditional lenders and digital banks. Lloyds Banking Group has agreed a partnership with Google to develop AI agents, while fintech groups Revolut and Starling Bank recently launched AI-powered financial assistants.

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