The Gaziza Lens
How AI is changing finance jobs
ISSUE 14 · CUSTOMER & ADVICE
Hi friends,
A few years ago, in a previous role at a UK bank, I worked on reshaping customer channels. Branches were closing. People were moved from branch counters to phones and digital support. That was before ChatGPT. This week I looked at what the AI wave is doing to the same jobs. It's quieter than the headlines, and in some ways bigger.
You'll also notice a new look.🎨 From this issue, each one looks at one function in financial services: what's changing, and what it means at every level.
IN THIS ISSUE
The Shift: AI is cutting customer jobs quietly, through fewer hires and softer exits.
Your career: what it means, and what to do at junior, mid and senior level.
The briefing: UK banks top satisfaction, how much "agentic AI" is really in UK contact centres, and the FCA on trust.
🧭 THE SHIFT
AI is cutting customer jobs quietly: fewer hires, softer exits.
What happened: On 7 October, the Financial Times reported that HSBC plans to cut about half of management and specialist roles in its UK wealth business and up to around 70% of financial advisers, as it moves to a more AI-led model. HSBC is still consulting with staff. It's the loudest version of a much quieter shift across customer roles.
The details:
Layoffs rarely get called layoffs. Only 20% of customer service leaders say they've reduced agent staffing because of AI, according to a Gartner survey published last December. In April, Gartner reported that 63% are shrinking frontline teams through attrition instead. Read that with care, as these surveys ask leaders, not the people leaving.
The entry rung is shrinking. In August, Stanford researchers found employment of 22 to 25 year olds in AI-exposed jobs, including customer service, is now 19% below where it would otherwise be. The gap comes mainly from reduced hiring rather than layoffs.
The biggest banks now say it out loud. In May, JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg the bank will be "hiring more AI people and fewer bankers in certain categories", and that AI "will reduce our jobs down the road". The change shows up in who joins, not only in who leaves.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR CAREER
In my old bank role, change wasn't overnight. At best, branch staff were retrained for phone and digital support. Others were offered voluntary packages, and many took them because they could see where their role was heading. On paper, that's attrition. In practice, it's a cut. AI runs the same logic, faster, so don't wait to be offered a package to decide your next move.
Use one lens: is this task on the map? Documented, rule-based work moves first. When I tested Revolut's AI assistant, it answered my spending question in seconds. When I asked whether to move my savings, it stopped at "I can't give personal advice." What stays human is off the map: the complaint that doesn't fit a script, the customer in financial difficulty, the decision with real money at stake.
The catch: the easy calls were how people learned the job. Fewer junior hires means a narrower path into the hard work. Meanwhile, new AI-adjacent roles are growing: knowledge managers, conversation designers who shape how the AI talks, and people who check its answers.
🎯 GET READY
Junior: Ask for the cases the AI hands over: complaints, disputes, customers in difficulty. That's the experience the easy calls used to give you.
Mid: Write down how hard cases actually get solved. In February, Gartner found 58% of service leaders plan to move agents into knowledge management roles, and that knowledge is what they'll need.
Senior: Measure your AI on problems solved, not calls deflected. And have a redeployment plan ready before anyone asks you for a cut list.
One step this week: Write down the five most common reasons customers contact your team, such as a lost card, a disputed payment or a missed repayment. Mark which ones follow a set process and which need someone's judgement. The set-process ones are what AI takes on first.
🗳️ QUICK POLL
In your team, what is AI changing most?
📰 THE BRIEFING
UK banks top the table: In July, banks and building societies became the UK's highest-rated sector for customer satisfaction for the first time, scoring 82.0, according to the Institute of Customer Service.
Why it matters: That trust is the asset at risk if AI handovers go wrong.
Agentic AI, in practice: In September, ContactBabel found that 24% of UK contact centres say they use agentic AI, but only 2% have a bot that can work out its own steps and act across more than one system.
Why it matters: The label is running ahead of reality. For now, most hard calls still need a person.
An AI that pays for you: In January, Revolut announced plans to let AI assistants complete purchases for its customers through Revolut Pay, in the UK and Europe, using Google's agent payments protocol.
Why it matters: Digital challengers are moving from AI that answers questions to AI that acts on a customer's money. Every purchase an agent makes is a future dispute, complaint or fraud case, and those land with people.
🏛️ Regulation: In July, the FCA's Mills Review concluded that trust, control and access will decide whether consumers take up AI in financial services, and recommended securing and adapting the regulatory perimeter.
Why it matters: Customer teams will be asked to show that people can still reach help, and stay protected, when AI is in the loop.
In partnership with
Agents now issue refunds, update accounts, and close tickets end to end. Running Agents in Customer Work: four Tuesdays on agentic AI in customer ops. Register for All Four
Is your team replacing people with AI, or changing the process first? Hit reply and tell me.
Until the next one,
Gaziza
P.S. If you work in a customer or advice team and AI is changing your job, I'd love a 15-minute chat. Just reply to this email.