Microsoft boss says AI will reshape banking jobs as UK lenders cut costs
Artificial intelligence will change the jobs available in Britain’s banking sector, but could also create new opportunities for workers with the right skills, a senior Microsoft executive has told City AM.
Bill Borden, Microsoft’s global head of financial services, told City AM that AI would replace much of the routine work traditionally carried out by junior bankers, changing the skills needed to enter the industry.
“Clearly there’s going to be an impact on human capital, for sure”, he said at Microsoft’s London conference on Wednesday.
“There will be a layer of all kinds of remedial, kind of repetitive, manual-type things [that] are going to get eliminated”.
But Borden argued that the technology could create new roles and change the skills banks need, rather than simply reduce their workforces.
“The question becomes what higher-value work can that analyst do”, he said
Barclays announced plans on Thursday to cut 5,000 jobs this year, equivalent to around five per cent of its workforce, as it expands its use of AI.
Around 60 per cent of the cuts will fall in support functions, with developers also among those affected.
Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said the bank would deploy AI widely but insisted the tech was “the icing on the cake not the cake”.
The announcement follows plans by HSBC to overhaul its UK wealth management business, potentially cutting hundreds of roles, while Standard Chartered has outlined plans to eliminate almost 8,000 back-office jobs by 2030.
Junior bankers face uncertainty
Borden told City AM that AI was already changing the work of junior analysts, who traditionally spend hours reviewing data and preparing presentations for senior bankers.
Those tasks can now be completed far more quickly, leaving banks to reconsider how junior staff are trained and what work they should be doing.
“There will be a layer of all kind of remedial, kind of repetitive, manual-type things [that] are going to get eliminated”, he said.
However, Borden argued that the impact on employment would depend on how banks adapted their businesses and trained staff to work alongside the technology.
He pointed to the introduction of spreadsheets and the internet, which initially raised concerns about job losses but went on to create new industries and opportunities.
“I think there’s still a lot to learn”, he said. “The answer is yes, there will have an impact on what jobs are needed for human labour. The question is what are those new models going to create? And what are the new skill sets and new capabilities that we’re going to come up with?”
Whether those opportunities would offset jobs lost to automation remained uncertain.
“Does that offset? Remains to be seen,” Borden said.
Concerns over AI impact
The comments come as Microsoft’s own research reveals concerns among British workers about the impact of AI on employment.
A survey of 5,000 UK employees found that 57 per cent of those using AI at work feared it would reduce opportunities for young people entering the workforce, while 35 per cent worried about their own job security.
Meanwhile, 84 per cent of business leaders were confident Britain could become a world-leading AI economy within five years, compared with just 41 per cent of employees.
Banks are already reporting productivity gains from the technology, with Borden pointing to Barclays’ reported saving of around one million working hours through Microsoft’s Copilot software.
He said banks were increasingly looking beyond time savings towards using AI to carry out more complex work, from processing loans to checking transactions and handling customer enquiries.
Earlier this week, the Financial Conduct Authority warned that banks must report significant AI failures and near-misses, as the technology becomes more involved in sensitive financial operations.
Borden said banks needed to monitor what their AI systems were doing and be able to stop them if they acted outside their instructions.
He also rejected suggestions that British banks were falling behind international rivals, arguing that the pace of adoption largely depended on how much risk individual institutions were willing to take.
“I don’t think they’re farther behind how people are thinking about using the technologies than the other institutions”. he told City AM.