Singapore’s DBS Group sees its workforce shrinking by 4,000 or 10 per cent over the next three years, due to deployment of artificial intelligence, group CEO Piyush Gupta said at an industry event.
In a fireside chat at an event organised by Nasscom, Gupta said that in 2016-17 the bank had identified 1,600 jobs that were redundant due to increasing automation. The management worked with the unions and the staff to create a transition pathway and to find alternative roles for them within the organisation. While some of them retired and many others quit, around 1200 of them were absorbed in other roles. “So I’ve never had to fire anybody,” said Gupta.
However, he projected a reduction in the workforce over the next three years because, “AI is different.” He pointed out that AI is not a tool that “you use”. “AI can actually self-create and can manipulate.” The bank has added 1,000 people in AI, he said.
DBS bank has over 6,500 employees in India..
in a clarification the bank said, “The reduction of 4,000 employees over the next three years will primarily involve contract and temporary staff.The workforce reduction will also come from natural attrition, as temporary and contract roles roll off over the coming years.”
The bank is using AI for internal job mobility, as well as to manage frauds, scams and risk. It is also using AI models for portfolio management as well as to onboard customers. “Our customer engagement rates are up… the volume of business that customers do is also up. Our ability to underwrite customers and bring them on board changes dramatically,” Gupta said, adding that it has 20 million clients now compared to 6 million a few years back.
DBS Group, which last year marked three decades of its presence in India, reported income of S$22.3 billion in 2024 and net profit of S$11.4 billion.
