Stephen Squeri, Chairman and CEO of American Express Co., speaks at an Economic Club of New York event in New York, U.S., Thursday, November 10, 2022.
Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images
American Express is cutting thousands of employees as the credit card leader prepares for artificial intelligence to take over more of its internal processes.
Amex is cutting 5% of its global workforce and taking on a $336 million restructuring charge, CEO Stephen Squeri told analysts on the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call Friday. The company had nearly 77,000 employees at the end of 2025.
Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC in an interview that the restructuring aims to make American Express “simpler, more agile, and also to prepare for AI.”
“You don’t want to automate processes that are not optimally structured,” Le Caillec said. “What we’re doing here is reducing the levels and increasing the scope of controls, so that we can automate and take advantage of AI over the next few quarters and years to come.”
Amex’s announcement reflects a broader trend in financial services, where banks are working to replace repetitive roles with AI automation. On Thursday, Barclays confirmed plans to cut 5,000 jobs, or around 5% of its workforce, as part of another technology-related cost-cutting initiative. These measures come even as the sector enjoys robust profits thanks to growth in consumer spending and credit resilience.
On the analyst call, Squeri said the goal was to improve the company’s efficiency.
“We are on good momentum, but to accelerate innovation and win over the next few years, we needed to become a more agile and efficient organization,” Squeri said.
“We believe this exercise will help us operate and execute more efficiently and give us greater ability to invest in our business priorities,” he said.
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