The British telecommunications giant BT can lose even more jobs than expected from 2030 due to the acceleration of the adoption of artificial intelligence, according to CEO Allison Kirkby.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Kirkby said that the largely publicized plan of the company to reduce up to 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade could underestimate the full impact of AI emerging capacities on the labor market.
“Depending on what we learn from AI … There may be an opportunity for BT to be even smaller by the end of the decade,” she said.
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BT, which has more than 130,000 employees, including entrepreneurs, announced for the first time the target of 55,000 jobs in 2023 under the former CEO Philip Jansen as part of a cost reduction campaign. But Kirkby, who took over in early 2024, said the plan “did not reflect” the full potential of AI to reshape operations and reduce the need for human involvement in key service areas.
The telecommunications company has turned more and more towards AI to automate functions through its central and mobile units. Last year, BT confirmed that it deployed generative AI tools to support customer service and sales functions in its consumer -oriented companies, including EE. One of these tools, a virtual assistant named “Aimee”, is said to have addressed around 60,000 customer questions per week. The company says it has been able to solve almost half of these problems without the need for human intervention.
The use of generative AI has enabled BT to “reinvent” its customer -oriented operations, in particular in the handling of calls and diagnostics, two areas previously intended for automation. The company had already planned that up to 10,000 roles could be eliminated through AI. Kirkby’s latest remarks suggest that the figure could be considerably higher.
Broader trend in industries
BT is not alone in this change. The Swedish Payment Company, Klarna, announced last year that its chatbot propelled to Openai had covered tasks equivalent to 700 employees with full -time customers. Klarna CEO Sebastian, Siemiatkowski, said that the company’s workforce has increased from 5,500 to around 3,000 in the past two years, largely due to efficiency gains pulled by AI.
He since admitted that the cuts may have gone too far and said that the company recurring, but it continues to warn wider implications for white passes.
“My suspicion is again that there will be an involvement for jobs in white collar, and when this occurs, this generally leads to at least one short-term recession,” said Siemiatkowski in an interview with the podcast earlier this month.
Dario Amodei, CEO of the main anthropic startup, has also published a recently hit warning, saying that AI could eliminate up to half of all entry -level collar jobs within five years.
“We, as producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest on what will happen,” Amadei told Axios.
Kirkby’s wider vision for Bt
Since he assumed the role in February 2024, Kirkby has pushed BT in a leaner and more targeted company. Under its leadership, the company has left several international operations and now explores the future of Openreach – the large -band infrastructure arm of the BT – which could be disturbed after reaching its objective of connecting 25 million houses in the United Kingdom with fibers by the end of 2026.
Openreach alone is estimated at more than 30 billion pounds sterling, exceeding the market capitalization of the BT group of approximately 18.5 billion pounds sterling. Analysts say that the possible separation of the unit could unlock a significant value, although Kirkby has not confirmed if a spin-off is imminent.
BT also reached an important step of 3 billion pounds Sterling and aims to double this by 2029. Since Kirkby took care of, BT shares jumped 65%, reflecting the confidence of investors in the direction of the new leadership.
However, the challenges of the company refused to disappear. Kirkby recently warned that an increase in national insurance contributions for the employer could cost the company more than 100 million pounds sterling, urging the British government to avoid imposing additional tax charges on large employers when they invest in digital transformation.
Balance innovation and jobs
While BT considers AI as a lever to increase efficiency and reduce costs, the company maintains that it also invests in Reskulling initiatives. Kirkby, who recently spoke during a Google event, said BT collaborated with technological partners to offer digital update to small British businesses and individuals who sail towards an ECC compatible with AI.
But the signals remain clear: the future of the company will be based strongly on automation, and the extent of its human workforce should continue to shrink.
Kirkby, echoing his long -term goal to prepare the 180 -year -old telecommunications giant for the challenges and opportunities of the digital age, said that there is an opportunity to make BT a simpler, leaner and more resilient business.
With rapid rise, what once seemed a theoretical threat is now to reshape hiring, work descriptions and long -term employment strategies in industries. For telecommunications like BT and Fintech as Klarna, the pressure to remain competitive pushes them to experiment with AI in a more aggressively. But for millions of workers, the question remains: who prepares them for what comes next?
