American Express (NYSE: AXP) has announced plans to eliminate roughly 5 percent of its global workforce, a reduction expected to affect about 3,500 positions. The credit card company is booking a $336 million restructuring charge in the third quarter to cover the associated costs.
Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec, speaking with CNBC, explained that the reorganization is intended to streamline the organization so it can operate more efficiently and with greater flexibility while positioning itself to make broader use of artificial intelligence.
The timing is notable because the cuts arrive during a period of solid business performance.
Revenue climbed 9 percent year over year in the third quarter, and the company raised its full-year 2026 earnings guidance.
At the same time, consolidated expenses also rose 9 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, driven largely by higher variable costs tied to increased card-member spending and product enhancements such as the refreshed U.S. Platinum Card.
Leadership has framed the workforce reduction as a proactive step rather than a reaction to weakness, arguing that the company needs a flatter structure with fewer management layers and wider spans of control before it can fully automate processes and deploy AI tools more extensively in the quarters and years ahead.
Chief Executive Officer Stephen Squeri reinforced that view on the earnings call, noting that strong momentum throughout the year had allowed the firm to increase investments in marketing and technology, and that some of those resources were now being directed toward making the organization more agile and efficient.
He emphasized the importance of accelerating innovation to remain competitive over the longer term.
Squeri also addressed the role of AI more directly, describing plans to use the technology for personalizing customer experiences and offers while stressing that any external AI agents would be limited to secure, approved channels so they could not operate unchecked within Amex systems.
The announcement follows closely on similar moves elsewhere in the financial sector.
Days earlier, Barclays disclosed plans to cut about 5,000 jobs—also roughly 5 percent of its staff—as part of an efficiency effort that the bank linked to technology modernization and the expanded use of AI.
Like Amex, Barclays has described AI as an important but secondary factor that builds on prior investments in infrastructure and process simplification rather than the sole driver of the reductions.
Both cases illustrate a broader pattern in which large financial institutions are reshaping their organizations in anticipation of greater automation, even as consumer spending and credit performance remain relatively resilient.
American Express reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $4.68 per share, ahead of analyst expectations, on total revenue of approximately $20.1 billion.
Net income rose sharply, aided in part by a gain from the sale of the company’s stake in Global Business Travel Group, a portion of which helped fund the restructuring charge.
Shares of the company declined in trading after the announcement, reflecting investor attention to the combination of rising costs, the one-time charge, and the implications of the workforce changes.
The company has not specified which departments or locations will be most affected, but the stated goal is to create greater capacity for investment in priority areas once the organizational streamlining is complete.
