HDFC Bank rules out layoffs as CEO says AI will create customer-facing and tech roles

HDFC Bank is positioning artificial intelligence not as a threat to its workforce but as a tool for strategic redeployment, according to its top executive.

Addressing the media after the bank’s second-quarter earnings on Oct. 18, Managing Director and Chief Executive Sashidhar Jagdishan dismissed concerns of job cuts tied to automation. “Frankly, AI is not going to have any layoff whatsoever in our bank,” he said. “I feel this is a massive opportunity to move people from the back end to the front end or to the tech end.”

Rather than replacing employees, Jagdishan said the bank intends to channel staff into more customer-facing and technology-led roles. “There is so much runway for growth. We would want to have a lot of people at the front end to engage customers and also in technology to keep innovating with emerging tech that’s rapidly coming over,” he added.

HDFC Bank’s current deployment of AI, he noted, is confined to re-engineering and process optimisation rather than automated decision-making. “This will be used to reduce turnaround time, simplify processes, and create a fair amount of customer experience, which will free up a fair amount of capacity,” he said.

“Once capacity is freed at the back end, we can bring more people to the front end to engage with more customers, and that’s the game plan.”

The bank expects a gradual payoff from its AI initiatives. “Some experiments will work and some won’t, but we are optimistic that the low-hanging fruits should work. One should start seeing the fruits of this from 18–24 months,” Jagdishan said.

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