American Express is cutting thousands of employees as the leading credit card company prepares for artificial intelligence to take over more of its internal processes.
Amex is eliminating 5% of its global workforce and taking a $336 million restructuring charge, CEO Stephen Squeri told analysts Friday on the company's third-quarter earnings call. The firm had almost 77,000 employees at the end of 2025.
CFO Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC in an interview that the restructuring charge was to make American Express "leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI."
"You don't want to automate processes that are not optimally structured," Le Caillec said. "So what we're doing here is to reduce layers and increase spans of controls, so that we can automate and take advantage of AI in the coming quarters and the coming years."
The Amex announcement reflects a broader trend across financial services, where banks are working to replace repetitive roles with AI automation. On Thursday, Barclays confirmed plans to trim 5,000 jobs — also roughly 5% of its staff — in another tech-driven cost initiative. The moves come even as the sector is enjoying robust profits from growing consumer spending and resilient credit.
During the analyst call, Squeri said that the charge was to improve the company's efficiency.
"We've got good momentum, but to accelerate innovation and win over the next few years, we needed to become [a] more agile and efficient organization," Squeri said.
"We believe this exercise will help us operate and execute more effectively and give us greater capacity to invest in our business priorities," he said.
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