Context
As the deployment of AI accelerates, announcements of workforce reductions are multiplying in the United States as well as in Europe. Following major US tech companies, large companies in the banking and insurance sectors have not hesitated to highlight their investment in technology to justify job cuts. This is notably the case for British bank Standard Chartered (81,000 employees), which announced plans to cut 8,000 jobs in the United Kingdom by 2030; Dutch banking group ING (15,000 employees in the Netherlands), which is considering laying off around 950 employees by December 31, 2026; and German insurer VHV Gruppe (4,600 employees). The latter has stated that its objective is to increase the use of AI in order to limit replacements and reduce its workforce by 20% by 2030–2031. Other large companies in various sectors have also begun similar processes, particularly in telecommunications. As early as 2023, the UK’s leading telecom company, BT (80,000 employees), announced that it would replace 10,000 jobs with AI in the United Kingdom, while its Spanish counterpart Telefónica (15,000 employees) recently reached an agreement with unions on a restructuring plan providing for between 4,500 and 5,500 voluntary departures across its seven subsidiaries by 2030.
According to a study published by Goldman Sachs Research in February 2026, 300 million jobs worldwide could be affected by artificial intelligence within the next ten years. However, according to its authors, most of these jobs will only be “partially exposed to automation and therefore more likely to be assisted rather than replaced by AI.” They also point out that jobs eliminated by automation have historically been offset by the emergence of new professions. This was already predicted by the OECD’s 2023 Employment Outlook. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 forecasts a positive net impact of 78 million jobs worldwide by 2030.
Challenges
Jobs to reinvent. Investing in artificial intelligence enables companies to automate repetitive tasks, improve productivity and strengthen their competitiveness. However, large-scale adoption is transforming the way people work. It accelerates the pace of work, changes work organisation and working conditions, reshapes professions and also makes some jobs obsolete—particularly those whose tasks are easiest to automate. “It is cognitive, complex and skilled tasks that appear to be increasingly exposed,” states a study conducted in April 2026 by Coface and the Observatory of Threatened and Emerging Jobs.
