The rise of artificial intelligence is prompting fears of widespread job cuts across finance, but European bank executives don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.

European banks’ AI buildout could see net headcount to rise 4% on average in the next three years, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence survey of senior executives at 57 global banks. That reflects lenders hiring engineers and data scientists to fully deploy the technology.

Job cuts are likely “to stay concentrated in routine, operations-heavy jobs” with call-center and middle-office roles at most immediate risk, the report says. Roles from trading to risk modeling to analysis remain safer for now.

The survey’s finding offers a reality check for those banking on swift and all-encompassing cost savings from AI-fueled overhauls. It suggests Europe’s 2.7 million finance workers will avoid mass job losses, at least for now, with the workforce mix evolving rather than shrinking even as firms like HSBC Holdings Plc and ABN Amro Bank NV mull multiyear overhauls.

Even as those more pragmatic expectations take hold, AI adoption is expected to lead to a 6% revenue increase and 8% profit boost to 2028 consensus for the 45 largest European banks, the executives surveyed said.

That is likely a “ceiling rather than a base case, given thin evidence, uneven deployment and banks’ weak history of turning technology spending into productivity gains,” according to Tomasz Noetzel, senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The Bloomberg Intelligence survey paneled senior executives at lenders with more than 5,000 full-time employees over September and October 2025 via an online questionnaire. Respondents identified themselves as knowledgeable about their banks’ cost base, current AI use and future AI plans.