JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) will reshape jobs inside the bank - and potentially across the broader economy - even as the lender pours almost US$20 billion a year into new technology.
Speaking at the bank’s investor day in New York, Dimon said management has already begun moving staff whose roles are affected by automation into other positions.
Some jobs have been displaced by AI, he conceded, but the bank intends to retrain and redeploy those workers rather than simply cut them loose.
The numbers show how that transition is playing out.
Headcount has held broadly steady at just over 318,000, yet the mix is shifting.
Operations and support roles have declined modestly, while client-facing and revenue-generating positions have grown.
The bank says technology has allowed each operations employee to manage more accounts, lowered fraud-handling costs and lifted software engineer productivity.
Generative AI - systems that can create text, code or images from prompts - is now embedded in customer service and internal technology teams.
Tools developed by firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic are being used through JPMorgan’s internal AI platform.
Dimon has previously compared AI’s potential impact to electricity or the printing press, but this week, he became even more euphemistic.
If automation were rolled out recklessly - he floated the example of self-driving trucks replacing millions of drivers overnight - the social consequences could be severe.
Lower-paid replacement work would not offset the disruption.
Governments and businesses, he argued, should plan now for retraining and support rather than wait for unemployment to spike.
Meanwhile, Dimon made clear the bank will not slow its own adoption.
“We are going to deploy AI as best we can to do a better job for our customers,” he said, framing technology as a competitive necessity rather than a choice.
But Dimon’s caution extends beyond technology.
He drew parallels between today’s buoyant markets and the years preceding the 2008 financial crisis.
Asset prices are high; deal volumes are strong, and leverage - borrowing to amplify returns - is building in parts of the system.
His concern is not about a specific trigger, but about investor complacency.
Recent market swings underline that tension.
Bank shares fell sharply earlier this week amid what some analysts dubbed an “AI scare trade” - a sell-off driven by fears that rapid advances in AI could upend established business models.
Despite the volatility, JPMorgan expects investment banking fees and trading revenue to rise by double-digits in the current quarter.
Pipelines for mergers and acquisitions remain active, executives said, even if some companies are pausing to assess policy and economic uncertainty.
The bank plans to spend US$19.8 billion on technology in 2026, up from about US$18 billion the previous year.
Total annual expenses are forecast at roughly US$105 billion.
Management argues that scale - balance sheet strength, data, long-standing corporate relationships - gives the bank an edge as financial services and technology increasingly overlap.
There are, however, cost pressures.
Fewer than 1,000 employees are being laid off this month as part of what the bank describes as routine workforce management.
More adjustments are expected later in the year, although JPMorgan says it still has thousands of open roles and continues to hire in growth areas.
Meantime, profitability remains robust with the lender delivering record annual earnings in 2024, aided by strong trading conditions and a rebound in dealmaking.
It is targeting a return on tangible common equity of 17%, a measure of how effectively shareholder capital is generating profit.
As for succession, Dimon signalled he intends to remain CEO for “a few years”, and may later serve as executive chairman, subject to board approval.
