We may cut 4,000 jobs in next three to four years owing to Artificial Intelligence: DBS CEO Piyush Gupta

Piyush Gupta. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“About 4,000 employees may lose their jobs in the next three to four years owing to Artificial Intelligence (AI),” said Piyush Gupta, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DBS Bank, at the NASSCOM Technology and Leadership Summit 2025. This would be a tenth of the company’s work force he said.

“My current prediction, in the next three years, we’d shrink our workforce by 4,000, 10%. And that is because, AI is different” Mr. Gupta said at the event in Mumbai. He further said this was a much newer trend as he has never had to fire employees owing to technological transition so far.

“The fact that technology will be good for customers and employees is a utopian view. This was because unlike other technologies, AI is self-creating,” he said. While he acknowledged the positive view that people will continue to find jobs, he said there would be “massive dislocations.”

“When the car came and the stagecoach went, you would argue that at the end of the day, the economy is prospered, transportation and industry grew. But I can tell you, all the stagecoach drivers didn’t necessarily come so fast unless they learnt how to drive. So, if you go back to India, it’s been a large people (who) got displaced. And when people got displaced, the new jobs were not the same. So, you look at the jobs we are creating. We are getting a lot of jobs, the cyber security specialists, the AI people. But a lot of my traditional operations people, the clerical staff, all the time, it’s not easy for them for the transition,” Mr. Gupta said highlighting the effects of the AI on jobs.

AI may not steal many jobs after all, it may just make workers more efficient

Mr. Gupta flagged that the number of jobs that are being created is smaller than the number being displaced. While on the one hand he appreciated the positive view of AI, he said the “dystopian view” was driven by the fact that he was struggling to create jobs for the first time in 15 years of being CEO.

Meanwhile in a separate statement, the company said that the reduction of 4,000 employees over the next three years will primarily involve contract and temporary staff. The workforce reduction will also come from natural attrition, as temporary and contract roles roll off over the coming years.