Recent decline in headcount not due to AI use: SBI Dy MD

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.

- AJINKYA KAWALE & SUBRATA PANDA

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.