Artificial intelligence is set to render some banking roles “obsolete” in the coming years, according to futurist and author Brett King. He emphasized the urgent need to retrain employees to keep pace with the rapid adoption of this technology. Speaking on Monday at the First Abu Dhabi Bank and IMD Competitiveness Summit 2026 in Abu Dhabi, King stated that the skill set within banks will need to shift dramatically towards “agentic operation.”
“There'll be a lot of new employees in the bank over the next 10 years but they'll all be agents,” King explained. He added that banks are going to restructure from a human-plus-AI operation. While some existing employees might be retrained to support these new roles, other positions will simply become obsolete. This shift signals a fundamental restructuring of the labor force within the financial industry.
The Automation Threat
Concerns are mounting globally over widespread job losses across various industries as AI integration accelerates. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, reported in July of the same year that AI had already eliminated 30 to 40 per cent of headcount in some of the bank’s departments. JP Morgan Chase outlined plans to invest approximately $20 billion in technology this year alone, a significant sum directed towards automation.
Earlier in the same year, in January, Amazon announced 16,000 job cuts worldwide. This move coincided with the company’s expanded adoption of AI tools, framed as a push for more efficient operations. Such corporate decisions highlight a growing trend where technological advancement directly correlates with workforce reduction.
King offered a stark prediction for the future of banking employment. “JP Morgan Chase, a couple of years ago, had 160,000 employees globally,” he noted. “By the end of the next decade, by the 2040s, I'd be surprised if they had a few thousand employees.” He asserted that 99 per cent of banking can be automated through agentic AI-based capabilities. In this “agentic world of banking,” humans are seen as slowing things down and being unproductive, a chilling assessment of labor's future.
Corporate Profit Over Labor
Banks are projected to become much more cost-effective and operationally efficient through the extensive use of AI. King highlighted that banks are expected to be more profitable as staffing costs decline. This focus on profitability through labor reduction underscores a systemic shift in corporate priorities.
For the Mena region, King suggested that “healthy financial inclusion” would emerge because the cost of banking goes down, and accessibility to financial services improves dramatically. He claimed that every individual in the middle-income bracket will soon have access to private banking-style capabilities through AI. However, this promise of inclusion comes amidst the backdrop of significant job displacement.
Speaking at the same summit, Hischam El Agamy, executive director of IMD Business School, urged the Middle East and Africa to develop unique banking models. He argued against replicating western frameworks due to distinct demographic shifts. El Agamy noted that 60 per cent of the world's youth will reside in the Mena region by 2024, creating a rising demand for innovation.
Summit speakers also lauded the UAE’s economic performance. The UAE was listed as the world's fifth most competitive nation in this year's IMD World Competitiveness Ranking report. The Emirates ranked first globally for economic performance, bureaucracy, adaptability of government policy, employment, international experience, national culture, and quality of air transport. The UAE led the region overall in the report, which assessed 70 countries against 67 criteria. Other regional countries also performed well, with Qatar at 11, Saudi Arabia 13, Bahrain 20, Oman 25, and Kuwait at 31, showcasing a regional embrace of these economic models.