BT to axe up to 55,000 jobs by 2030 as it pushes into AI

theguardian.com:

BT has said it will become a “leaner business” as it announced plans to reduce its workforce by as much as 55,000 by 2030, more than 40% of its global employee base, in a cost-cutting drive.

The telecoms company employs about 130,000 staff globally, with approximately 30,000 of those contractors through third parties, and has about 80,000 staff in the UK.

On Thursday, BT said it intended to reduce its total workforce to about 75,000 to 90,000 between 2028 and 2030.

The telecoms group has embarked on a rollout of broadband and 5G infrastructure and has benefited from digital trends such as AI.

The company said that over the rest of the decade it expects to complete the most labour intensive part of the rollout of next-generation full-fibre and 5G networks across the UK, meaning fewer engineers will be needed.

The company also aims to benefit from a broader move to digitise its business and take advantage of new technology, such as artificial intelligence, which could be used to make areas such as call handling and network diagnostics less labour intensive.

BT, which reported a 12% drop in pre-tax profits to £1.7bn for the year to the end of March, aims to make £3bn in annualised cost savings by 2025.

The BT chief executive, Philip Jansen, said: “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. New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.”

The company also reported that its pay-TV sport joint venture with Warner Bros Discovery made a £123m loss for the year.

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