Mumbai, Oct 19 (PTI) HDFC Bank, the country’s largest private lender, does not believe the use of artificial intelligence will lead to job cuts, a top company official said.
HDFC Bank Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Sasidar Jagdishan on Saturday said the financial institution, which had 220,000 employees as of September, is conducting “lighthouse experiments” with technologies such as generative AI, the benefits of which will be realized over the next 18-24 months.
“At least at our bank, we don’t see any layoffs due to AI (as a result) because we see this as a huge opportunity to move people from the back end to the front end or the technology end,” Jagdishan told reporters on a post-earnings conference call, responding to a specific question about the employment impact of AI.
Amid growing concerns about the impact of AI on jobs across all sectors, he added in his remarks: “It’s just going to change the composition of the workforce. But other than normal attrition, it’s not going to reduce headcount.”
In the banking industry, the CEO of a major Southeast Asian company recently said that despite business growth, it is not hiring more employees for the first time in 15 years, pointing out that AI will lead to a 10 percent reduction in headcount over the next three years.
HDFC Bank has added about 5,000 employees in the past six months, taking its total base to over 220,000 at the end of September.
Jagdishan said India is a booming market with financial services opportunities and a long runway for growth, which will require many people to engage with customers on the front end and continue to innovate by embracing the best that technology developments have to offer.
He said HDFC Bank’s investments are aimed at supporting future profits and its efforts revolve around restructuring processes, reducing delivery times and improving customer experience.
The bank is currently “quietly” working on its technology efforts, which it plans to unveil at the appropriate time.
He clarified that the bank has put in place appropriate guardrails and has not delegated any decision-making tasks to AI tools.
The “game plan” is to reduce headcount on the back end and use the same people on the front end, he added.
“We hope it works. These are all lighthouse experiments. We put effort and effort into that particular thing. Some things work, some things don’t. We’re pretty optimistic that these low-hanging fruit should work,” the CEO said.
