Banking is facing its “Uber moment” according to John Cryan, chief executive of Deutsche Bank. In remarks prepared for the Handelsblatt Conference earlier this month, Cryan warned of the impact of technology on both his own bank and the rest of the industry, where the rise of artificial intelligence will replace a massive segment of the workforce.
A “big number” of Deutsche staff will ultimately lose their jobs to robots, he said — “In our bank we have people doing work like robots. Tomorrow we will have robots behaving like people. It doesn’t matter if we as a bank will participate in these changes or not, it is going to happen.”
“The sad truth for the banking industry is, we won’t need as many people as today,” said Cryan, who is adding to the list of CEOs warning about job losses coming as a result of widespread adoption of artificial intelligence across all kinds of industries globally.
This year’s Investment Innovation Conference in Bermuda (October 24-26) will focus on the impact of artificial intelligence on the financial service sector – including the ethics behind the rise of robots and the implications to investors. You can find out more about the conference and register here.