Business · 2026-10-23 · Afternoon briefing

American Express to cut 5% of workforce, citing AI preparations

American Express announced it is cutting 5% of its global workforce, a move affecting thousands of its roughly 77,000 employees. The credit-card company will take a $336m restructuring charge, which executives said was intended to make the firm “leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI” to take over more of its internal processes.

The move reflects a broader trend in financial services. A day earlier, Barclays confirmed its own tech-driven plan to trim 5,000 jobs, also representing about 5% of its staff. According to American Express’s CFO, Christophe Le Caillec, the company is first seeking to “reduce layers and increase spans of controls” before automating, as you “don’t want to automate processes that are not optimally structured.”

Summary written by Cup of News with AI from the sources below. Check the originals for the full story.

Read the sources

• American Express is cutting 5% of its workforce to prepare for AI
• American Express to cut 5% of its total workforce: What to know
• Payments giant makes layoffs citing AI
• American Express to Cut 5% of Global Workforce -- 2nd Update
• American Express profits rise; company cuts workforce by 5%, or about 4,000 employees

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