Jamie Dimon says AI is already reshaping JPMorgan Chase’s workforce as bank plans ‘massive reshuffle’

At an investor meeting late Monday, Dimon described his bank’s internal plans to move employees into new roles as automation accelerates.

‘We already have huge realignment plans for this [our] own people,” Dimon said. “In fact, we talked about it today, and we need to step that up a little bit so that we can take people who are displaced – and we have people displaced by AI – and offer them other jobs.”

JPMorgan, the world’s largest bank by market capitalization, has the largest annual technology budget in the industry at nearly $20 billion. Its executives have outlined an ambitious agenda to “fundamentally rewire” for the AI ​​era.

Even at this early stage, the bank’s workforce provides a snapshot of what happens when companies use AI technology, including models from OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which are used by JPMorgan’s AI portal.

The bank’s workforce remained approximately unchanged 318,512 over the past year, but there were also changes beneath the surface: Operations and support staff declined by 4% and 2%, respectively, while the company added 4% to positions related to serving customers and generating revenue.

The bank did this by using technology to increase the number of accounts each operations employee can handle (6%), reduce the per-unit cost of dealing with fraud (11%) and make their software engineers 10% more efficient, according to the bank’s report. presentation.

JPMorgan doubled down on use cases for generative AI this year, focusing on customer service and the company’s technology workforce, Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said at the investor meeting.

A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to comment on Dimon’s comments about realignment plans.

When an analyst asked Monday whether Dimon was concerned about the risk of widespread unemployment due to AI — one of many fears swirling as every AI model update seemed to devastate the stocks of publicly traded companies in recent weeks — Dimon responded: “We’re going to leverage AI as best we can to do a better job for our customers.”

The CEO has previously compared the potential impact of AI to that of electricity or the printing press.

In addition to the “massive redeployment plans” for his bank, Dimon expressed concern that the rapid adoption of AI could put entire professions out of work.

As a thought experiment, what if autonomous trucks were introduced overnight, he asked.

“Would you do it if you put 2 million people on the street?” Dimon asked. “That next job will cost $25,000 a year, stocking shelves.”

Companies and governments must start planning for this risk now, with ideas such as assistance and training for displaced workers, he said.

“Society needs to think about what it wants to do if this becomes such a problem,” Dimon said. “Now is the time to think about it.”