JPM CEO Jamie Dimon says AI is reshaping workforce, bank plans ‘huge redeployment’

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank is taking steps to address the impact of artificial intelligence on its workers, part of what he said should be a broader societal response to the potentially disruptive nature of AI.

Dimon described at an investor meeting late Monday his bank’s internal plans to shift employees into new roles as automation accelerates.

“We already have huge redeployment plans for own people,” Dimon said. “In fact, we spoke about it today, and we have to up that a little bit so we can take people who are displaced — and we have displaced people from AI — and we offer them other jobs.”

JPMorgan, the world’s biggest bank by market cap, has the industry’s largest annual tech budget at nearly $20 billion. Its executives have outlined an ambitious agenda to become “fundamentally rewired” for the AI era.

Even at this early stage, the bank’s workforce provides a snapshot of what happens when corporations employ AI technology, including models from OpenAI and Anthropic, which are both used by JPMorgan’s AI portal.

The bank’s headcount was roughly unchanged at 318,512 over the past year, but there were changes below the surface: Operations and support staff fell by 4% and 2%, respectively, as the firm added 4% to roles that involve catering to clients and generating revenue.

It did that by using technology to boost the number of accounts that each operations employee can handle (up 6%), reducing the per-unit cost to deal with fraud (down 11%) and making their software engineers 10% more efficient, according to the bank’s presentation.  

JPMorgan has doubled the use cases for generative AI this year, focusing on customer service and the firm’s technology workers, Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said at the investor meeting.

A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to elaborate on Dimon’s comments about plans for redeployment.

When an analyst on Monday asked if Dimon was concerned about the risk of widespread unemployment because of AI — one of several fears circulating as every AI model update seems to wallop the shares of public companies in recent weeks — Dimon had this response: “We are going to deploy AI as best we can to do a better job for our customers,” he said.

The CEO has previously likened the potential impact of AI to that of electricity or the printing press.

Beyond the “huge redeployment plans” for his bank, Dimon expressed concern that the rapid adoption of AI could put entire professions out of work.

As a thought experiment, what if autonomous trucks were introduced overnight, he asked.

“Would you do it if you put 2 million people on the street?” Dimon asked. “That next job is $25,000 a year, stocking shelves.”

Businesses and governments need to begin planning for this risk now, with ideas including assistance and training for displaced workers, he said.

“Society’s got to think through what it wants to do if this becomes that kind of problem,” Dimon said. “Now is the time to start thinking about it.”