Commerzbank to cut 3,000 jobs, invest €600m in AI

Commerzbank will cut about 3,000 jobs, roughly 8% of its workforce, and allocate €600 million to artificial intelligence projects over the next four years as part of its Momentum 2030 plan. The bank expects the AI programme to deliver about €500 million in annual value from 2030 onward.

The measures are intended to speed up profitable growth, raise efficiency and advance technology across the group. Management expects AI investments to free up and partially redeploy around 10% of current capacities and to reduce labor-intensive tasks through automated processes.

In the first quarter, Commerzbank reported net profit of €1.4 billion, up 11% year on year, and revenue of €3.2 billion, up 5%. The bank reiterated targets to grow full-year revenue to €15 billion by 2028 and €16.8 billion by 2030.

Commerzbank listed several AI applications already in use or planned. The bank will roll out an agentic complaints-management tool and deploy an AI model called Hawk AI to scan large data sets for signs of money laundering and other financial crime. It uses AI-assisted reviews of annual reports to flag emerging risks and plans to scale AI agents for processes including account switching, know-your-customer checks, document verification and contract drafting.

A bank statement said the plan represents a reweighting of resources to reflect AI’s growing role in the business model. “With Momentum 2030, the bank will leverage the potential of AI even more,” the statement added, noting measurable benefits for customers and employees.

Chief Executive Bettina Orlopp described the start of the year as “record-level results,” and noted the bank is growing faster than expected. She characterized the updated targets through 2030 as ambitious but reliable in execution and said all alternatives must be measured against the revised plan.

Commerzbank’s announcement comes while Italy’s UniCredit has expressed interest in a takeover, a factor the bank cited as part of the broader strategic context for improving margins and efficiency.

Other European lenders are making similar AI commitments. Santander has projected more than €1 billion of annual business value from data and AI by 2028. A recent industry survey found 59% of financial firms reported AI-driven productivity gains in 2025, up from 32% the previous year; 21% said AI is directly driving business growth, compared with 8% a year earlier; and 33% reported improvements in customer experience.

Commerzbank did not disclose where the job cuts will fall or provide a detailed timetable for redundancies and redeployments. The bank said it will increasingly use AI agents to handle end-to-end processes that are currently labor intensive, with the objective of reducing costs and improving service quality as part of a multi-year programme to lift productivity and scale digital capabilities across operations.