British Telecom (BT) plans to cut up to 55,000 jobs by 2030, most of them in the UK, in a slashing cost cut. As many as one-fifth of the job cuts will be in customer service as those workers are replaced by technologies including artificial intelligence (AI).
The layoffs will be made in a total of 130,000 people, including employees and third-party contract workers (also known as “contractors”).
Philip Jansen, chief executive of BT, said: “When new technology arrives, we experience huge changes.”
“Generative AI” tools such as ChatGPT “give us the confidence that we can go further,” he said. He argues that AI will make service faster, better and more seamless, and that these changes won’t mean customers will “feel like they’re dealing with a robot”.
“We have multiple channels, including online services, and we have 450 stores, and that hasn’t changed,” Philip Jansen said. “Our customers still have plenty of opportunities to engage with BT people, lots of people to talk to.” He added that “new technologies drive new jobs”, although BT says that by 2030 “its total workforce will significantly reduced.”
British Telecom is the UK’s largest provider of broadband network services and mobile network services. The company is currently continuing to expand its fiber optic network deployment to achieve “copper out of light”. BT said that once the work is complete, it will no longer need as many staff to build and maintain its network.
In addition, BT said newer, more efficient technologies, including AI, mean fewer people will be needed to serve customers in the future.
Not long ago, Vodafone, another British telecommunications operator, said it would cut a tenth of its workforce, equivalent to 11,000 jobs, over the next three years.
Philip Jansen said BT would become “a leaner business with a bright future”, with the company planning to cut between 40,000 and 55,000 jobs by 2030.
The company has about 80,000 employees in the UK, and most of the job cuts will come from the UK. BT has about 20,000 employees overseas. In addition, it has 30,000 “contract workers”, mainly abroad. Many of these jobs will disappear.
The specific distribution of layoffs is as follows:
More than 15,000 jobs will be cut as BT completes construction of its fiber optic network in the UK;
More than 10,000 jobs to be cut as new UK network requires less maintenance;
More than 10,000 jobs will be cut as new technologies, including AI, are used;
Due to the implementation of the restructuring plan, more than 5,000 employees will be cut.
James Barford, director of telecommunications research at Enders Analysis, said BT’s job cuts were largely due to fewer people needed to build out the network, while Vodafone’s job cuts were “more general efficiency savings”. In both cases, he said, plans were “broadly in place and cost savings were previously described in monetary terms rather than layoffs,” and the companies are now talking about layoffs that could be “to help convince skeptical investors that they really are.” Will fulfill the promise of cost savings”.
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