American Express Cuts 5% of Workforce for AI Push

American Express is cutting 5% of its global workforce. CEO Stephen Squeri said the company is restructuring to become more agile and efficient. American Express reported third-quarter results Friday and will record a $336 million restructuring charge for the quarter. Charges of this type typically include employee severance costs. The workers facing layoffs bear the human cost of a plan executives describe in terms of efficiency and investment.

The cuts behind the corporate language

American Express had almost 77,000 employees at the end of 2025. The announcement doesn’t say how many employees will lose their jobs or which parts of the workforce will be affected. It does state the scale: 5% of the global workforce. Executive leadership made the decision, while the people whose jobs are being cut don’t appear as quoted voices.

“We've got good momentum, but to accelerate innovation and win over the next few years, we needed to become [a] more agile and efficient organization,” Squeri told analysts. He said the company believes the exercise will help it “operate and execute more effectively” and provide “greater capacity to invest in our business priorities.” Those are management’s stated aims. The immediate step is to reduce the workforce.

Squeri said the restructuring charge is $336 million for the quarter. Charges of this type typically include employee severance costs, but American Express hasn’t provided a breakdown of how it will spend the money. The figure puts a price on restructuring in the company’s accounts; it doesn’t describe what losing a job means for affected employees.

Layers to cut, AI to prepare for

CFO Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC in an interview that American Express is restructuring to become “leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI.” His explanation links job cuts to a wider shift in how the company wants to organize work: “You don't want to automate processes that are not optimally structured,” he said.

Le Caillec said the company plans to reduce layers and increase “spans of controls” so it can automate and take advantage of AI in coming quarters and years. In his account, fewer organizational layers offer a route to efficiency and automation. He didn’t say which processes will change, which employees beyond those covered by the global reduction will be affected, or what work AI will take over.

Company leaders decide what counts as an optimally structured process. Workers face the announced cuts, while executives describe the change as preparation for future business priorities. The article gives no employee account of the restructuring and reports no worker-led response, mutual-aid effort, or direct action. It mentions no legislative or electoral remedy, either; the decisions described are corporate ones, presented by the executives overseeing the restructuring.

Squeri’s promise of greater capacity to invest and Le Caillec’s promise of automation describe the company’s intended direction, not a guarantee of what employees will experience. American Express marked its report as developing. For now, the clearest details are the 5% workforce cut, the $336 million quarterly charge, and management’s stated plan to reduce layers and prepare for AI. The company’s language is about agility. The announced reduction is about jobs.