Jamie Dimon says AI already reduced jobs in some areas by 40% — but it's not making JPM dramatically cheaper to run

So Jamie Dimon, the man who once called Bitcoin a 'fraud' and then launched JPMorgan's own blockchain, has revealed that AI has already culled up to 40% of jobs in some parts of his bank. But don't worry — it's 'trivial' spending on tokens for now, and the bank isn't 'dramatically cheaper to run.' Trivial. Forty percent of people gone, and the cost savings are trivial. That's corporate speak for 'we're still figuring out how to pocket the difference while the severed headcount lingers in the rearview mirror.'

The 40% figure isn't a shock — it's a heads-up. If one of the world's largest banks can quietly shed two-fifths of a department without making the place 'dramatically cheaper,' the rest of the sector is about to learn a brutal lesson in efficiency. The token expenses Dimon calls trivial are clearly just the opening bid; when they accelerate in the second half of 2026, the 'trivial' label will vanish faster than a junior analyst's job security. JPMorgan isn't getting cheaper — it's getting leaner, meaner, and vastly more profitable for shareholders. The workers? They're the rounding error in a spreadsheet.

And what of the promised productivity gains? Dimon's own words hedge beautifully: the bank isn't dramatically cheaper, suggesting the AI hasn't yet delivered on its grand promise. So we're left with a bank that has fired 40% of some teams, is spending next to nothing on tokens, and isn't seeing the bottom line shift. It's the most expensive way to do less with fewer people ever devised. But hey, at least the remaining employees can enjoy the warm glow of knowing they survived the first cut. The second cut comes when token spending ramps up.