“We needed to become a more agile and efficient organization,” said American Express CEO Stephen Squeri.
The AI revolution is rolling on – American Express is the latest financial services heavyweight to announce job cuts fueled by the technology’s inexorable rise.
Speaking during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call early Friday, American Express CEO Stephen Squeri explained that the company took a $336 million restructuring charge during the quarter and is expected to eliminate approximately 5% of its positions globally.
“We have got good momentum, but to accelerate innovation, and win over the next few years, we needed to become a more agile and efficient organization,” he said.
As of Dec. 31, 2025, American Express employed approximately 76,800 people; approximately 25,900 were in the U.S. and approximately 50,900 were outside the U.S.
Squeri used the earnings conference call to discuss AI efforts at American Express. “There has been a lot of talk about how companies are using AI to increase productivity, automate processes, and generally make their organizations more efficient,” he said. “We are using AI to do all of those things too.”
With regard to AI and agentic commerce from a customer’s perspective, Squeri said that it is still “early in the game” and noted that agentic transaction volumes are still small, although “the direction is clear.”
AI is fundamentally changing how consumers and businesses discover, compare, decide, pay, and manage their finances and their lives, according to Squeri. “AI gives us the opportunity to make Amex membership even more valuable,” he added.
American Express made a return to financial planning in 2021 with the launch of its My Financial Plan digital tool.
InvestmentNews has reached out to American Express with a request for additional details on the job cuts.
Like most sectors, the financial services industry is weighing the impact of AI. Citing the productivity benefits of AI, banking giant Barclays also announced that it is cutting about 5,000 jobs during the conference call to discuss its third-quarter results this week. CNBC reports that the cuts amount to about 5% of Barclays’ workforce.
Earlier this year fintech Trust & Will underwent layoffs amid an AI-related restructuring.
Employment in financial activities is down by 129,000 since a recent peak in May 2025, according to data released earlier this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of the job loss happened in insurance carriers and related activities, according to the BLS.