When your boss tells you to embrace the technology that might replace you, the appropriate response is somewhere between nervous laughter and updating your LinkedIn. That’s roughly the situation facing tens of thousands of HSBC employees right now.
CEO Georges Elhedery is pushing the bank’s workforce to accept the reality of artificial intelligence reshaping their jobs, even as the company moves forward with plans to eliminate approximately 20,000 positions globally. That figure represents about 10% of HSBC’s entire workforce, concentrated mainly in non-client-facing roles.
The pitch: adapt or get left behind
Elhedery has been remarkably candid about what’s coming. Generative AI, he’s acknowledged, will both destroy and create jobs at the bank. The destruction part is already underway. The creation part requires something the corporate world loves to talk about but rarely executes well: retraining.
According to HSBC’s 2025 Annual Report, the bank plans to shift toward scaled delivery of generative AI and integrate it deeper into core processes by 2026.
