The role of workforces in re-thinking their own futures in an AI-efficient world - Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs have big plans

AI is going to claim more jobs at Wells Fargo, admits the financial services giant’s CEO, but without the tech the company won’t be able to operate as efficiently as it needs to in a highly-pressurised market.

While that pronouncement from Charlie Scharf will doubtless send a shiver of trepidation down the spines of many Wells Fargo staffers about what 2026 might hold for them, it can hardly come as too much of a shock. Since he took up the CEO slot in 2019, Wells Fargo has shed around 65,00 jobs in the name of transformation and efficiency, taking out costs of around $15 billion across that time.

Now with plans to roll out AI across next year, there’s more to come in what he pitches as a “positive reality” for the bank. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs US Financial Services Conference, the direction of travel ...