BT plans to cut 55,000 jobs as fibre roll-out ends and AI comes of age      

While AI won’t account for all the job losses, the technology will help BT replace some workers in IT and digital services, who will be gradually phased out.

BT Group has announced plans to cut 55,000 workers by the end of the decade, with around 10,000 of those cuts at the telecoms firm related to digitisation, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI).  

The technology will allow the company to operate “more efficiently,” BT chief executive Philip Jansen said, noting that the company has filed more AI patents than any other in the UK. While AI won’t account for all the job losses, the technology will help BT replace some workers in IT and digital services, who will be gradually phased out.

Many customer service chats are already being handled by a bot, which is consistently awarded a high customer satisfaction ranking, Mr Jansen claimed in a call with investors following the company releasing its earnings report. AI will also help manage traffic on the company’s network, he said.

“Managing traffic, predicting traffic more accurately, it’s people-intensive. You won’t need it any more,” Mr Jansen said.

The company announced plans to reduce its staff, which includes full-time employees and contractors, by as much as 42%. 

The job cuts will come after the company completes an overhaul of its older copper network to faster fibre-optics and will help it meet plans to slash expenses by £3bn (€3.4bn) a year by 2025 from 2020 levels. 

Earlier this week, British rival Vodafone announced plans to reduce headcount by 11,000 over the next three years. Mr Jansen at BT has been weighing more dramatic job cuts since at least 2019.

 Bloomberg