Recent decline in headcount not due to AI use: SBI Deputy MD Nitin Chugh

The decline in State Bank of India’s (SBI’s) employee headcount over the years is due to disproportionate hiring compared to annual retirements, rather than technological advancements, including AI-driven interventions, a senior official of the bank said on Thursday.

 

According to Nitin Chugh, SBI’s deputy MD & head-digital banking & transformation: “Our overall staff strength has marginally come down and it has nothing to do with technology.”

 

Chugh was speaking at the Microsoft AI Industry Boardroom – BFSI Edition.

 

“Generally, what we do is, we replace the retiring population with intakes every year. In some years, the retiring population is more than the intake population. The intake number is fixed. We intake 2,000 probationers and a certain number of trainee officers every year,” he said, adding that the total headcount remaining in a certain band is also a phase because the outflow is more than the inflow.

 

He highlighted that SBI is hiring a lot of specialised people. SBI, the largest lender in the country, is doubling its data science team. It has also hired a digital marketing team, and is recruiting people on the technology side.

 

The nature of jobs will undergo a transformation going forward, Chugh said, adding that someone possessing the right skills to use the tech inputs in daily jobs will be better off than the one who does not.

 

Chugh also allayed fears that the accelerated use of AI may lead to job losses in the banking space.

 

“Even though we have digitised much of our interfaces, it has not taken away the need for people to interface with bankers. Most banks are adding branches, workforces. So, generative AI (GenAI) is not going to substantially remove that requirement. As long as the market continues to grow, there will be enough unexplored depth that we have to cater to. So, there is going to be a long enough time where there is no risk we foresee,” he said.

 

As per SBI’s annual report of financial year 2023-24 (FY24), the bank had an employee strength of 232,296 at the end of March 31, 2024. Of its total workforce, 110,116 were in the category of “officers”, 92,514 in “clerical”, and 29,666 in “sub-staff”.

 

SBI’s employee headcount has come down by over 17,000 since FY20 when the bank’s employee base stood at 249,448. The decline in workforce is a broad trend seen across all state-owned banks.

 

Data compiled by Business Standard annual reports shows that SBI had 249,448 employees in FY20 and 232,296 in FY24, marking a drop of 17,152 in five years.

 

RBI data shows at the end of FY24, state-owned banks had an employee strength of 764,679 while private sector lenders employed 846,530 individuals. In FY20, state-owned banks had 770,409 employees, compared to 554,950 of the private banks.

 

Additionally, Chugh also stated that SBI is currently making use of more than 150 AI models across different areas of operations, such as business, fraud and risk management, customer service, employee productivity, and planning, among others.

 

Chugh highlighted that SBI is experimenting with Microsoft Copilot and Agentic AI but he did not specify a timeline as to when these AI models will be implemented on a full scale basis.