Just saying the words:
“we are going to develop AI”
or
“we are going to automate”
Just saying these words alone does not just make it all magically happen but we are laying people off as if we are already there and don’t need the people.
As nuts as it may sound, you actually get to the automation part, then survey your headcount landscape. I think there’s some belief upon high that if you just go ahead and let people go, whoever is left is magically imbued with special powers and all coding\testing\full stack development of all languages knowledge is gained and all obstacles are removed for the few that are left. The network guy left magically knows all the in’s and out’s of all makes and models of all routers and switches and firewalls.
It doesn’t work that way. If the mindset is “well, we’ll just replace them with people who do have all these combined skills”. Well, uh, no you won’t. You won’t for the pay you are offering not to mention the fact that people research the companies before they interview. People with those high level skills who are marketable, rarely jump on board with a company that’s in the process of laying off on a multi year plan. Those that do, want the high salary upfront with no fine print trickery. High salary which by the way Citi does not meet to begin with on a good non-layoff year.
Its smarter to get to the automation and fully integrated AI part first, then let people go as needed but then again, when has the leadership ever done the smart thing.