DBS to Cut 4,000 Roles Over Three Years Due to AI
DBS Group reportedly plans to cut around 4,000 temporary and contract roles over the next three years as it expects AI to take on more of the work typically carried out by human employees.
The bank’s outgoing CEO Piyush Gupta told an industry conference on Monday 24 February: “This year, my current projection is that in the next three years, we’ll shrink our workforce by about 4,000 or 10%.”
Gupta, who is set to leave DBS at the end of March 2025, added that the bank expected to create around 1,000 new AI-related jobs.
DBS currently has between 8,000 and 9,000 temporary and contract workers, and employs a total of more than 40,000. A bank spokesperson is reported as saying that the reduction in workforce will come from “natural attrition” as a result of completed projects. Permanent staff will not be affected.
AI "different" to other technology adoptions
During his speech at the Indian IT industry lobby group Nasscom even, Gupta attributed his projection on the growth of AI, saying “AI is very powerful. It can self-create and also mimic.”
He said AI is “different” and unlike other technologies adopted in the past. He also pointed out how, in the last 10 years, there have been no job cuts at DBS.
Gupta is one of the first banking leaders to set out the possibility of job losses or changes as a result of AI adoption. According to Reuters, he also said: “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 I will repurpose people to create jobs."
How DBS is using AI and ML
DBS first experimented with AI in 2012, with efforts picking up pace over the last couple of years, including applying Gen AI solutions to areas such as customer outreach, credit underwriting and hiring processes.
The company says its focus on becoming an AI-fuelled bank is powered by its robust data and AI foundation, combined with an agile approach to work. This has helped it deploy AI at scale and speed.
In 2018, DBS recognised the competitive advantage that AI industrialisation brings and began a comprehensive and “aggressive” transformation process to create a robust data platform.
This work included bringing together 700 data professionals to deliver impactful business outcomes efficiently and at scale, driving the responsible use of data and creating a single source of truth powering all analytics and AI solutions.
This groundwork yielded significant outcomes. The bank created over 350 AI use cases and delivered more than 800 AI models. It also reduced time-to-value from AI and machine learning from 18 months to two-to-three months.
From this foundation, DBS has been able to rapidly identify and deploy Gen AI use cases to unlock new opportunities and improve customer service. It currently has over 20 Gen AI use cases under implementation, and an estimated 90% of employees have access to Gen AI tools at work.
Speaking in a 2022 DBS blog, Gupta said at the time that the bank’s use of AI was scoring just two or three on a scale of 10, highlighting the untapped potential the technology could bring to the bank’s operations.
He added that, while digitalisation was considered “table stakes” at most banks at the time of writing, DBS's AI and machine learning capabilities had already put it lightyears ahead of its competitors.
Gupta is set to be succeeded by Tan Shu Shan on 28 March 2025.
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