British telecoms company BT to axe 55,000 jobs by 2030 amid AI integration

The British multinational telecommunications company BT Group has announced that it will be cutting its current headcount of around 130,000 by 55,000 by the end of the decade as the company looks to replace customer care services with artificial intelligence (AI).

According to a report by CNN, the company’s chief executive Philip Jansen told analysts that AI would make services faster, better, and more seamless.

In total, around 10,000 jobs will be replaced by automation and AI.

“Our chatbot deals with lots of customer queries already,” he added. BT was beginning to explore new products and services that might come from “generative AI and large language model AIs.”

The job cut will mostly impact its employees in the UK, which currently add-up to around 80,000. The rest of the staff are either contractors, or employed overseas.

The UK’s Communications and Workers Union told the BBC that it was not surprised by the decision, however insisted that it wants the company to keep as many of its core employees as possible, while cutting jobs from sub-contractors first.

The announcement was made the company reported a 12 per cent drop in profits which led to a significant drop in share price.

The company’s decision to cut its headcount by more than a third comes just a few days after Vodafone’s decision cut its headcount by 11,000 jobs over the next three years, roughly a tenth of its workforce.

Featured image BT Tower from Flickr