BT boss Kirkby expects AI to deepen job cuts, FT reports

BT Group chief executive Allison Kirkby said advances in artificial intelligence (AI) could deepen significant job cuts under way at the British telecoms company, the Financial Times reported on Sunday (Jun 15).

Kirkby told the newspaper that BT’s plans to cull more than 40,000 jobs and strip out £3 billion (S$5.2 billion) of costs by the end of the decade “did not reflect the full potential of AI”.

“Depending on what we learn from AI . . . there may be an opportunity for BT to be even smaller by the end of the decade,” the FT quoted her as saying. Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile provider had said in 2023 that it would cut as many as 55,000 jobs, including contractors, by 2030. Its CEO at the time, Philip Jansen, said the company would rely on a much smaller workforce and significantly reduced cost base by the end of the 2020s.

Kirkby, who took over from Jansen a year ago, has also opened the door to a possible future spin-off of Openreach, the company’s network infrastructure business, the FT said.

She said she did not feel the value of Openreach was reflected in the company’s share price and if that persisted, BT “would absolutely have to look at options”.

In an e-mailed response to Reuters, BT said that Openreach is not something the company is actively looking at right now. It did not provide further comment on Kirkby’s FT interview. BT said last month that strong demand for fibre broadband and more than £900 million of cost savings had helped to shore up its full-year earnings and boost cash flow.

Resilience at Openreach offset declines in revenue and profit at its business and consumer units, where legacy voice services continued to wane and handset sales fell. REUTERS