Bank of America job cuts: headcount down nearly 3,500 in a year as the bank automates work, invests in AI and refills fewer roles

Bank of America's headcount fell by nearly 3,500 in a year as the bank automates work and invests in AI, its finance chief said, with the reduction coming from roles it no longer refills rather than announced layoffs. "Even as we add headcount in our sales forces, our headcount was down nearly 3,500 from a year ago as we automate processes and simplify work across the company," chief financial officer Alastair Borthwick said on the third-quarter earnings call on 14 October 2026. "This means we don't need to hire quite as many people to refill roles." In the same remarks he listed investment in "technology modernization, AI, client acquisition, marketing". Chief executive Brian Moynihan put the fall at "3,000 or 1.5% year-over-year", with managers down about 5% while the staff doing client-facing work are up, and said the bank is holding expense growth to 1% to 2% "through engineering process through AI application". The bank is also adding people in places: it opened five branches in Milwaukee this month and added 1,000 staff to work on its regulatory remediation, outside the headcount count. Neither executive tied a specific number of lost roles to AI, and the shrinkage is attrition, not a cut, so nothing here enters the AI layoffs tracker.