Dec 9 (Reuters) – Wells Fargo expects its headcount to decline next year and anticipates higher severance costs in the current fourth quarter, CEO Charlie Scharf said on Tuesday.
“We have gone through the budgeting process, and even pre-artificial intelligence, we do expect to have less people as we go into next year,” Scharf said at a Goldman Sachs financial services conference.
Scharf said AI will not fully replace humans, but it offers a chance to reshape how tasks are done. He also reiterated that the expected workforce decline was due to Wells Fargo’s focus on efficiency.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru and Lananh Nguyen in New York; Editing by Susan Fenton and Paul Simao)
