Due to cost-cutting measures, telecom giant BT plans to eliminate up to 55,000 positions by the end of the decade, primarily in the UK.
As labor is replaced by technology like artificial intelligence, up to a fifth of those cuts will be made in customer support. Staff and contractors are also included in the headcount reduction from the existing workforce of 130,000.
“Whenever you get new technologies, you can get big changes,” stated CEO Philip Jansen. According to him, “generative AI” tools like ChatGPT, which can compose screenplays, poems, essays, and computer code in a manner akin to a human, “gives us confidence we can go even further.”
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Even while BT has stated that by the end of the 2020s, it will have a “much smaller workforce,” Mr. Jansen continued, “new technologies drive new jobs.”
The leading internet and mobile provider in the UK, BT, is actively expanding its fiber network as it transitions away from copper. The business said that once the work was over, fewer employees would be required to create and maintain its networks.
In addition, it claimed that fewer workers will be required to serve clients in the future due to newer, more effective technology, such as artificial intelligence.
