American Express Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Squeri speaks at a New York Economic Club event on Thursday, November 10, 2022, in New York, USA.
Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images
american express Major credit card companies are cutting thousands of employees as artificial intelligence prepares to take over more internal processes.
AmEx will cut 5% of its global workforce and incur $336 million in restructuring costs, Chief Executive Officer Stephen Squery told analysts on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Friday. The company had approximately 77,000 employees at the end of 2025.
Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec said in an interview with CNBC that the reorganization aims to make American Express “leaner and more agile, but also AI-ready.”
“You don’t want to automate processes that aren’t optimally structured,” Le Caillec says. “So what we’re doing here is reducing the layers and increasing the span of control so that we can automate and leverage AI in the coming quarters and years to come.”
AmEx’s announcement reflects a broader trend across financial services, where banks are working to replace repetitive roles with AI automation. Barclays on Thursday confirmed plans to cut 5,000 jobs, about 5% of its workforce, in another technology-driven cost-cutting move. The move comes despite the sector enjoying solid gains from rising consumer spending and a recovery in credit quality.
Squery said on a conference call with analysts that the charges are aimed at improving the company’s efficiency.
“We have good momentum, but we needed to become a more agile and efficient organization to accelerate innovation and win in the years ahead,” Squery said.
“Run the villain.”
Mr. Squery devoted 10 minutes of his prepared remarks to his views on AI, focusing primarily on how it is used to personalize experiences and offers for AmEx cardholders.
The CEO emphasized the need to respond to customers’ requests for AI, including agents, but added that AmEx “doesn’t intend to have assistants tamper with our systems.”
“We need to protect our customers (and) merchants, and we will only allow agents to access authorized systems through API or MCP channels,” he said, citing two ways to securely connect external platforms with AmEx’s systems.
Amex reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street’s profit expectations. Adjusted earnings per share were $4.68, beating the average analyst estimate of $4.48, according to LSEG.
The company now expects full-year earnings to be in the range of $18.30 to $18.60 per share on an unadjusted basis, up from its previous target of $17.30 to $17.90.
The index was supported by proceeds from the sale of AmEx’s stake in Global Business Travel Group, part of which was earmarked for the restructuring plan, Le Caillec said.
Total revenue rose 9% to $20.06 billion, slightly below Wall Street’s LSEG estimate of $20.12 billion. Executives attribute some of the drag on spending to the recent withdrawal of smaller companies from co-branding partnerships.
The company’s stock price fell about 4% in afternoon trading.
