(Aug 12): Standard Chartered plc expects rebalancing of its global headcount due to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) but sees hiring growing in markets such as India, home to its largest global capability centres.

“Even if I look at India — our largest GCC (global capability centre) — we predict that our headcount in these markets is only going to grow as we are doing more and more sophisticated work out of our shared service centres, including in India,” group chief operating officer Tanuj Kapilashrami told Bloomberg TV’s Paul Allen on Wednesday.

The British lender employs about 22,000 at its so-called global capability centres in India, which support the bank’s operations worldwide, Kapilashrami said. The firm’s current total global workforce is just over 81,000, with about 50,000 staff trained on AI.

Kapilashrami took over as the group COO in May this year and has over two decades of experience in the global financial services sector. Prior to Standard Chartered, she was with HSBC Holdings plc.

India has emerged as a key hub for GCCs as global firms tap its deep pool of technology, engineering and financial-services talent, making the centres a mission-critical cog of global finance. While low-end jobs have been shifting to places such as the Philippines, sprawling campuses in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram and Mumbai house armies of quants, risk analysts, investment and tech staff. India’s growing AI capabilities are further cementing its role as a centre for banks seeking to develop and deploy AI across their operations.

Standard Chartered is focused on putting guardrails around AI adoption as it scales the technology across its staff, said Kapilashrami.

The bank said in May it plans to eliminate close to 8,000 support roles over the next four years, one of the first global lenders to set out how it expects AI to trim headcount.

Global banks are increasingly using AI to automate routine processes, detect fraud and sharpen lending decisions, while also exploring generative AI for customer service and internal operations.

Standard Chartered is employing more AI-native talent, said Kapilashrami. The lender is already seeing productivity gains from AI adoption and an improvement in its cost-to-income ratio, she added.

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