American Express layoffs: Amex is cutting about 3,500 jobs, 5% of staff, and its CFO says the restructuring is to 'prepare for AI'

American Express is cutting about 5 percent of its global workforce, roughly 3,500 jobs, and its chief financial officer says the job cuts are partly about AI. Chief executive Stephen Squeri told analysts on the third-quarter earnings call on 23 October 2026 that a $336 million restructuring charge "is expected to result in the elimination of approximately 5% of our positions globally". The Associated Press put the cut at about 3,500 employees; Amex had almost 77,000 at the end of 2025. On the call Squeri framed it as becoming "a more agile and efficient organization" and said he had asked senior leaders to "reduce layers to speed decision-making". Chief financial officer Christophe Le Caillec drew the AI line in an interview with CNBC the same day: the restructuring was to make the company "leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI". "You don't want to automate processes that are not optimally structured," he said. "So what we're doing here is to reduce layers and increase spans of controls, so that we can automate and take advantage of AI in the coming quarters and the coming years." The cuts are Amex's first large round in about a decade and came as it reported a 28 percent rise in quarterly profit to $3.71 billion and raised its full-year forecast, funded in part by the gain on its Global Business Travel Group stake. The company has not said which teams or locations are affected. Management layers go first here, with the automation they make room for still to come.