ANZ CEO Warns AI Could Cut Half of Jobs and Trigger Global Crisis

By Olivia Hart

ANZ Group Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Nuno Matos warned that artificial intelligence could eliminate up to 50% of jobs and trigger a worldwide crisis unless governments impose global regulation on the technology.

Matos made the claim Thursday during a parliamentary hearing in Canberra. He argued that AI's labor-market shock would be too large for any single country to contain.

What did Matos actually say?

The ANZ chief put a striking number on the risk: job cuts of up to 50%. Should cuts on that scale materialize, he said: "we'll have a crisis and it's not going to be in Australia, it's going to be a global crisis."

"This is one of the few examples where I would say some global regulation is needed to make sure that society does not go into trouble," Matos told lawmakers.

Read carefully: Matos did not say 50% of ANZ's workforce faces the axe, nor did he offer a timeline for when such cuts might arrive. He framed the figure as a worst-case scenario demanding coordinated government action — a caveat worth holding onto when a bank chief cites a number this large.

Is the anxiety grounded in current cuts?

The warning lands against a backdrop of real reductions. The adoption of AI among Australia's banks in recent years has coincided with job cuts amid a challenging economic backdrop, according to the source report.

Australia's finance sector union has accused banks of replacing staff with AI — a charge the industry has not escaped.

The pattern extends beyond banking:

• Canva Inc. this month announced a sweeping overhaul that will see 22% of its staff leave.
• Microsoft Corp. is offering buyouts to around a quarter of its 223,000 staff — roughly 55,000 people — as the tech giant retools its workforce for the AI era.

The takeaway in plain words: the CEO's crisis warning follows layoffs already under way, not speculation alone.

What does he want governments to do?

Matos called for cooperation across borders rather than national rules alone. "I hope that obviously the world and the administrations are capable of cooperating and ensuring that this technology does not create a social problem at a global level," he said.

He did not specify which bodies should write the rules, what they should contain, or how they would be enforced. The gap between demanding global regulation and detailing it remains wide.

For workers, his prescription was individual as well as institutional: develop AI skills to reduce the risk of losing your job to colleagues who are more proficient. Matos pointed to ANZ's efforts to build staff capacity internally as his bank's answer.

Why is a bank CEO worried about AI's 'dark side'?

The Canberra comments intensify concerns Matos has previously voiced about the quickly developing technology. He believes AI could be used to attack banks as key choke-points for the economy.

"AI has a dark side," Matos said. "Wide adoption of AI without having the adequate guardrails — it's a big problem. No banks should be building AI without building the right controls."

He added that ANZ is developing its own "control platform" as it employs the technology across the bank. The bank is also using AI to prevent fraud and identify cyber weaknesses, he said.

That dual posture — warning of AI's dangers while deploying it across the institution — defines the industry's current position. ANZ has offered no public timetable for its control platform, nor details on how it would be audited.

The takeaway: a bank chief is asking regulators to act before the labor market forces their hand, while his own AI rollout continues in parallel.