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# American Express plans 5% job cuts as it prepares for more AI
- URL: https://all-about-ai.ghost.io/news/american-express-plans-5-job-cuts-as-it-prepares-for-more-ai/
- Published: 2026-10-26T15:28:17.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-26T15:28:17.000Z
- Description: About 3,500 positions are set to go despite record revenue. Amex is reducing organizational layers, but has not tied specific cuts to work already automated.
- Author: Frontier Models Desk
- Tags: News, work-tools, american-express, workplace-ai

American Express plans to eliminate about 3,500 positions as it removes organizational layers and prepares for wider use of AI, even as quarterly revenue reaches a record. The card company recorded a $336 million restructuring charge and expects to cut approximately 5% of global positions. Its finance chief’s explanation puts organizational changes ahead of further automation: simplify how work gets done first.

The cuts accompany revenue of $20.1 billion, up 9% from a year earlier, and net income of $3.7 billion, up 28%. Those results need one qualification near the top: a large investment-sale gain boosted reported profit. Even excluding that gain and the restructuring charge, Amex’s company-defined adjusted earnings per share rose 13%, according to its [earnings call](https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/axp/transcripts/655622-q3-2026/?ref=all-about-ai.ghost.io).

\~3,500Positions expected to be eliminated

$336MPretax restructuring charge

$20.1BQuarterly revenue, up 9%

13%Growth in company-adjusted earnings per share

CEO Stephen Squeri told analysts he had asked senior leaders to streamline their organizations, align teams around critical deliverables and reduce layers to speed decisions. [The Associated Press reports](https://apnews.com/article/american-express-credit-cards-platinum-fbe9dcebe7d1477253076208ea22afc2?ref=all-about-ai.ghost.io) that he described the layoffs as an efficiency measure rather than a response to a business downturn.

CFO Christophe Le Caillec connected that restructuring to AI preparation. In [The Next Web’s account of his CNBC interview](https://thenextweb.com/news/amex-job-cuts-ai-agents-run-rogue?ref=all-about-ai.ghost.io), he described simplifying poorly structured processes before automating them, while reducing reporting layers and increasing the number of employees each manager oversees. That is a rationale for changing the organization in anticipation of more AI use. It does not identify jobs that software has already taken over.

The affected work remains unspecified. [Payments Dive reports](https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/amex-american-express-shrink-workforce-ai-squeri/833853/?ref=all-about-ai.ghost.io) that an Amex spokesperson supplied the approximately 3,500 figure but declined further details. As of October 26, public disclosures do not identify affected teams, countries or job grades, or provide a completion schedule. Reducing layers also does not establish that every position being eliminated is managerial. Both the job count and the 5% figure are approximate.

Amex already uses AI in parts of its business. Its [2025 annual report](https://s26.q4cdn.com/747928648/files/doc%5Ffinancials/2025/ar/American-Express-Annual-Report-2025.pdf?ref=all-about-ai.ghost.io) describes tools used by travel counselors in 19 countries and development tools reaching more than 11,000 engineers. The company says the engineering tools reduced coding cycle time by over 30%. These are company-reported results, and its broader AI initiatives include pilots and systems still being expanded.

What the AI connection establishes 

Amex has disclosed existing AI tools and described restructuring intended to make further automation easier. It has not publicly connected a specific eliminated position to a named AI system or measured productivity gain. That leaves direct job replacement unproven, while allowing that expected AI adoption influenced the decision.

The financial filing explains how Amex absorbed the restructuring cost during a strong quarter. Selling its stake in Global Business Travel Group produced a $982 million pretax gain, and the company says it used part of that gain for efficiency initiatives. Its [third-quarter filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/4962/000000496226000409/axp-20260930.htm?ref=all-about-ai.ghost.io) also records legal reserves, tax benefits and changes to credit-loss estimates that affected earnings. The 28% profit increase therefore cannot be read as a measure of operating improvement alone.

Our read is that Amex shows how expectations about AI can influence jobs before direct replacement is demonstrated. For employees who remain, the consequential question is what happens to the work attached to the removed positions: which tasks disappear, which move to colleagues, and which eventually pass to software?