AI to Take Jobs of 4,000 Employees at Singapore’s Largest Bank

Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, will lay off about 4,000 employees, or 9.7% of its total workforce, and will shift their responsibilities to artificial intelligence systems. The organization itself explained the initiative by saying that “the workforce reduction will occur due to natural attrition as temporary and part-time positions are reduced in the coming years.”

Image source: Xu Haiwei / unsplash.com

The bank’s representative did not specify which positions would be affected or how many people would lose their jobs in Singapore alone, but stressed that the initiative would not affect permanent employees. At the same time, DBS intends to create about a thousand jobs that will be related to work in the field of AI. The deployment of artificial intelligence systems at the bank has been going on for more than a decade, its CEO Piyush Gupta said last year. To date, DBS has launched “more than 800 AI models in 350 scenarios, and the measured economic impact from them is expected to exceed 1 billion Singapore dollars ($745 million),” the head of the bank said.

Experts are still divided on how AI will impact the labor market. In 2024, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said AI would affect up to 40% of jobs worldwide and would “likely increase inequality.” Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, however, expressed doubts that AI would become a “mass job destroyer.” Meanwhile, antivirus software developer Norton published a study on Valentine’s Day: 62% of respondents were unable to recognize AI-written content in dating profiles.