American Express said on Friday it will cut about 5% of its global workforce, or roughly 3,500 jobs, in a restructuring aimed at making the company leaner and faster as it prepares for artificial intelligence. The announcement came as the credit card company reported stronger third quarter results and raised its profit outlook for the year.
The American Express job cuts are the company’s first major workforce reduction in roughly a decade. The New York based company had about 76,800 employees at the end of 2025, according to its latest annual filing, and the cuts will affect staff across its global operations.
Chief Executive Stephen Squeri told analysts on an earnings call that the move is meant to streamline the company’s teams and remove layers of management. He said the goal is to align staff on the most important priorities, speed up decision making and free up money to invest in the business.
“We’ve got good momentum, but to accelerate innovation and win over the next few years, we needed to become a more agile and efficient organization,” Squeri said during the call with analysts.
A leaner company
The restructuring will cost American Express $336 million in one time charges, which the company recorded in the third quarter. Part of the cost is being funded by the sale of its equity stake in American Express Global Business Travel, a business travel company in which it held shares.
Squeri said he asked senior leaders earlier this year to find ways to streamline their teams and cut layers so decisions could be made faster. The company believes the exercise, once complete, will help it work more effectively and give it greater capacity to invest in its priorities.
One of those priorities is adding more perks for cardmembers. American Express targets higher income customers, and it has been working to keep them spending on its cards while winning new members. The company said it continues to see strong billings growth as it signs up new customers and retains existing ones.
The cuts come even though business is strong. American Express reported third quarter net profit of $3.71 billion, up 28% from a year earlier, while revenue rose 9% to $20.06 billion. The company also raised its full year earnings outlook to between $18.30 and $18.60 per share, up from its earlier forecast of $17.30 to $17.90.
Preparing for AI
Artificial intelligence is a central reason for the restructuring. Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC the changes were intended to make American Express “leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI.”
Squeri said the company is already using AI to boost productivity and automate processes. But he added that it is also preparing for a bigger shift, as customers begin to use AI tools to shop, compare prices and make payments.
“AI is fundamentally changing how consumers and businesses discover, compare, decide, pay and manage their finances and their lives,” Squeri said on the call. He noted that agentic transaction volumes, where AI agents act on behalf of customers, are still small but growing in a clear direction.
Le Caillec said the company first needs to fix how its teams are organised before it can make full use of AI. The plan is to reduce layers and widen spans of control so that AI tools can be applied to well structured processes in the coming quarters and years.
Squeri also said American Express is taking a careful, risk based approach to AI, to guard against problems from automated agents acting without proper checks. At the same time, he said the company must respond to how customers want to use the technology. “You have to embrace AI, and you have to do what your customers want to do,” he said.
Strong results, softer shares
Despite the stronger results, American Express shares fell about 3.3% on Friday to $314.57. The stock is now down about 15% since the start of the year, even as the company’s customers keep spending more.
The market reaction shows that investors are watching costs closely, even at companies that are growing. American Express said it remains on track for sales growth of 10% this year, and analysts polled by FactSet expect earnings of $17.61 a share on revenue growth of 10%.
The company is not alone in trimming staff. Other large employers, including Barclays, Volvo, eBay and Electronic Arts, have also announced job cuts in recent weeks, as companies across industries look to cut costs and prepare for wider use of AI.
For American Express, the restructuring is presented as a move to get ahead of change rather than a response to falling business. Squeri said the cuts were intended to improve efficiency, not to react to a downturn, and he pointed to the company’s strong momentum as the reason it could afford to act now.
American Express did not say which departments or countries would be affected most, and it did not give a date for when the cuts will be complete. The company has not provided further details about the restructuring beyond what executives shared on the earnings call.
