NatWest job cuts: about 1,000 jobs went in three months, and the chief executive says roles 'are being changed because of AI'

NatWest cut about 1,000 full-time jobs in the third quarter of 2026, taking its job cuts this year to 1,400, and chief executive Paul Thwaite says some roles at the bank "are being changed because of AI". The figures came with the bank's third-quarter results on 30 October, which reported gross cost savings of around £420 million and a cost-to-income ratio of 45.7 percent for the year so far. Overall headcount still rose, because the purchase of wealth manager Evelyn Partners brought about 2,200 staff into the group. Thwaite told reporters the "underlying shape of the workforce is changing quite a bit" and that "it's important we've got the right skills, the right individuals in the right roles". On AI he said it is "pervasive across the organisation and it is too often framed in quite a narrow way around efficiency", adding: "Roles are changing. We've got new roles that are very much dedicated on AI, and we've got other roles that are being changed because of AI." He would not say whether more cuts are coming, only that "the first people to hear about that would be our colleagues". The bank's own results statement does not mention headcount; it lists an AI spending-insights trial and an AI fraud-triage agent for credit card customers among the quarter's launches. Thwaite has previously told MPs he sees no direct link between AI and job cuts at NatWest. That is why this is recorded as an article and not as an AI job loss in the tracker: the chief executive credits AI with changing roles, but the bank attributes the reduction to its efficiency drive, not to AI doing the work.