DBS expects AI to remove about 4,000 contract and temporary roles over three years, its chief executive said

DBS, Southeast Asia's biggest bank, plans to shrink its temporary and contract workforce by about 4,000 over three years as artificial intelligence takes on work now done by people, chief executive Piyush Gupta said at an industry conference in Mumbai on 24 February 2025, Reuters reported. "In my 15 years of being a CEO, for the first time, I'm struggling to create jobs. So far, I've always had a line of sight to what jobs I can create. This time I'm struggling to say how will I repurpose people to create jobs," he said. He added that about 1,000 new positions would be created in AI. The bank confirmed the figure in its own words the next day: "Over the next 3 years, we envisage that AI could reduce the need to renew about 4,000 temporary/ contract staff across our 19 markets working on specific projects." It said the reduction would come from natural attrition as those contracts end, and that permanent staff are not affected. Nobody is being dismissed under this plan. The jobs go by not being renewed, which is why a cut of this size produced no layoff notice anywhere.