BT plans to cut 55,000 jobs by 2030 and will replace 10,000 jobs with AI

British Telecom recently announced that it will lay off 55,000 employees by 2030 and plans to use AI to replace up to one-fifth of its employees. Position.

At the same time, BT announced its 2022 financial results, showing that its profits fell by 12% to £1.7 billion. BT currently employs 130,000 people worldwide, but plans to reduce its headcount to 75,000 to 90,000 by 2030.

With the adoption of AI, British Telecom will lay off a large number of layoffs

Philip Jansen, CEO of British Telecom, announced the news on the morning of May 18. He said, The rollout of 5G and fiber broadband services in the UK is set to end over the next few years, and this business unit is likely to bear the brunt of job cuts.

Jansen said: “By continuing to accelerate network build-out and connectivity, digitizing the way we work and simplifying BT’s business structure, by the end of 2030 BT will be running the business with fewer staff and significantly lower costs. cost. BT will be a leaner company with a brighter future."

Jansen told investors on the company's earnings call that he expected AI to be able to fill some vacant positions and will Replace up to 10,000 eliminated positions. The rise of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools may have a profound impact on many business areas, automating tasks previously completed manually.

Jansen said: "There is a huge opportunity for companies like BT to use AI to improve efficiency."

He added: "We will automate and digitize the business , it is expected to reduce the number of employees by 10,000, which will make us a huge beneficiary of artificial intelligence." Even though generative AI is a huge leap forward, I firmly believe that we must approach it with caution because this is a massive change. ”

The number of layoffs in the telecommunications industry is increasing

British Telecom is the latest technology company to say it will deploy AI as part of a layoff plan. IBM recently announced that they plan to Recruitment for 7,800 back-office positions was suspended last month because these positions may be replaced by artificial intelligence systems.

Days before the news of layoffs at British Telecom, another British telecom company Vodafone said it would 11,000 layoffs over the next three years.

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