HSBC Chief Executive Georges Elhedery urged employees to embrace generative AI as a force that will reshape work across banking, saying the technology will eliminate some jobs while creating others as lenders accelerate automation across the financial industry.
Elhedery said during an HSBC investor day event on Wednesday that the bank was retraining its workforce to prepare for the disruption, with staff encouraged to work with the company through the transition rather than resist a technology already changing how financial services operate, Reuters reported.
“We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs,” Elhedery said.
Elhedery framed the AI transition as a matter of preparing employees for change, rather than simply counting future job losses, saying his immediate priority was to bring the bank’s roughly 200,000 employees into the transition by giving them the training, tools and confidence needed to stay relevant as AI changes day-to-day banking work.
“But my initial mission is I need 200,000 colleagues with us on this journey,” Elhedery said. “However many will be left at the end of the journey isn’t the problem.”
He said the larger concern was whether employees could be equipped to become “future ready” and more productive, rather than being pushed into uncertainty by a technology they may not understand or feel prepared to use.
“The problem is how can we make sure that those 200,000 colleagues have been given all the capabilities, the training, the tools to make themselves future ready, be more productive versions of themselves,” he said.
Banks move to ease AI anxiety
Elhedery’s remarks point to a growing tension across banking, where executives are promoting AI as a productivity engine while workers worry the same tools could reduce the need for human roles.
The HSBC chief said employees should not allow fear to turn into resistance as the bank expands its use of AI. He said HSBC wanted employees to feel included and prepared, rather than anxious, overwhelmed or resistant to the change.
His comments came as Standard Chartered Chief Executive Bill Winters also moved to calm internal concerns after saying the bank would cut thousands of jobs over the next four years as technology replaces “lower-value human capital.”
Winters told employees in a memo that recent coverage of his remarks had caused concern inside the bank, particularly around automation, AI and planned workforce changes.
“I know this may be unsettling when reduced to simple headlines or a quote out of context,” Winters said.
AI-linked cuts spread beyond banking
The pressure is spreading beyond banking, with technology and crypto companies also cutting jobs as they restructure teams, lower costs and shift more operations toward AI-driven workflows.
Meta began a major round of layoffs on May 20 that will affect about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 employees, as the company pushes deeper into AI adoption and seeks more cost-efficient operations.
Termination emails began reaching affected staff in the early hours of Wednesday, with Asia-based teams reportedly among the first to be notified before the cuts widened to employees in Singapore, the United States, Europe and other global locations.
Internal engineering and product teams are likely to face some of the biggest reductions, while affected employees are being locked out of work laptops, official accounts and internal communication channels after receiving termination notices.
Crypto firms are also reducing headcount. On May 15, Kraken parent Payward moved to cut 150 jobs, equal to about 5% of its 3,000-person global workforce, as it streamlines operations ahead of a planned IPO. The latest cuts follow an earlier restructuring in October 2024, when Payward eliminated about 400 positions, or roughly 15% of its workforce.
Coinbase also announced on May 5 that it would reduce staff by 14%, affecting an estimated 700 employees, as Chief Executive Brian Armstrong said AI was becoming central to the company’s operating model.
“AI is changing how we work,” Armstrong said, adding that the company was adjusting early to become “lean, fast, and AI-native.”
Together, these moves show how AI is moving from a productivity booster for employees into a key driver of workforce planning.
Banks, tech giants and crypto platforms are now trying to bring employees through the transformation, even as many workers brace for fewer roles and a faster-changing job market.