Citigroup President Jamie Forese is warning of the impending wave of automation, saying that machines could replace half of Citigroup's 20,000 technology and operations staff in the next five years, according to an article from the Financial Times (paywall).
This statement is reminiscent of Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan's claim that half of Germany's banking workforce could be automated. If these numbers were extrapolated across the industry, job losses could be greater than the losses between 2007 and 2017, when 60,000 jobs were cut from the 8 of top 10 investment banks' rosters.
Forese's prediction of a five-year countdown to robo-armageddon is one of the bleakest and shortest timelines posited in the mainstream.
Barclay's Tim Throsby told FT, “If your job involves a lot of keyboard hitting then you’re less likely to have a happy future.”
