BT has announced today that it plans to cut up to 55,000 jobs over the next decade.
Chief Executive, Philip Jansen, said that he anticipated that Artificial Intelligence systems could replace around 10k jobs.
“By continuing to build and connect like fury, digitise the way we work and simplify our structure, by the end of the 2020s BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base,” he said.
“New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.”
The comments were made as BT published its annual results, which showed that its revenue was down 1% to £20.7bn. Profits before tax were down 12% to £1.7bn.
Of the job cuts, the report said that it planned to reduce its overall workforce from 130k to between 75k and 90k by the end of the 2030 financial year.
That includes both staff and contractors.
The group said that once the fibre roll-out had been completed and its work processes had been digitised, it would be able to use tech, including AI to maintain networks and carry out some customer service functions – using tools, such as Chat GPT.
It’s not revealed where the cuts will take place, but it’s reported that around 50k employees and contractors are based overseas. The company has a number of large office spaces in the North of England, including a flagship one in Sheffield.
