Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

@sp+1jqd91ew6

Nailed it. Exactly what's happening.

@OP

Super nice that's what they want. Good luck getting everyone on board. I won't be.

@a4 ahole

All part of the master plan. What the ivory tower wants is as many domestic workers to quit as possible. Every action and statement is to further that goal. If they have a town hall and tell people that AI is the future here, they want you to walk out of there looking for your next gig. Eventually you'll find an opportunity and leave the company on your own, which will save them severance expenses. That's what they want for you and why they say things like this to us. Naturally, the downside of this approach is that you eventually wind up with nothing but dead enders and people with few prospects elsewhere, and that's probably not the workforce that leads to greatness. It's unfortunate that the current "leaders" are too short sighted to understand this. Some do, they just don't care because they know they'll be gone anyway before the stuff hits the fan.

Build whatever AI bots they envision for your resume, and out of spite for India.

Hey OP and crew—yeah, that town hall was a gut punch. The AI-first rhetoric sounds like “build bots to replace yourselves, stat,” while we’re drowning in micromanagement and justifying every breath. And don’t get me started on the MFA-on-personal-phones nonsense—another “do more with less” slap. The bit about India scaling up while U.S. headcounts drop? It’s not even them picking up slack—it’s us wasting hours fixing their subpar work just to keep things running. Feels like a double whammy: clean up offshore messes, then hand our jobs to AI.
I dug into this a bit, since Wells Fargo leans on McKinsey for strategy. Their latest (like the December 2024 “Extracting Value from AI in Banking” piece) says half-assed AI—sprinkling it like fairy dust—gets you nowhere. They’re pushing banks to go “all in,” rewiring entire domains (help desks, customer service, whatever) with AI at the core. Small bot projects? Waste of time. Big, structural wins are the goal. JPMorgan’s data chief, Teresa Heitsenrether, said it too: focus AI on “enterprise value,” not a “thousand flowers blooming.” If Wells Fargo’s buying that, they’re not joking—bots could absolutely target routine gigs like help desks or even frontline managers.
But here’s the kicker: this isn’t just a Wells Fargo thing. A BBC piece (“AI Is Coming for India’s Coders,” March 2025) nailed it: “They were already stressed out by having to fix substandard coding from abroad when they got the memo saying AI might soon take what was left of their jobs.” Sound familiar? Offshore teams—India included—churn out code we have to patch up, and now AI’s the next wave coming for us. Admins dodging layoffs by becoming “kanban leads” or useless managers coasting? Good luck coding that mess into a bot. Still, McKinsey says banks that don’t go AI-first get eaten by ones that do. Leadership’s probably drooling over the cost cuts.
That’s why I’m vibing with the “use AI to learn AI” idea from the replies. If we’re stuck fixing India’s output and dodging AI, why not get ahead of it? I’ve been messing with ChatGPT—asking stuff like “how does AI replace a help desk?” or “what’s agentic AI?” (McKinsey’s obsessed with that—AI managing other AIs like a virtual boss). It’s free and cuts through the jargon. The BBC article mentions coders turning to AI tools to upskill—same logic applies. Coursera’s got solid AI intros too, or even YouTube if you’re broke. We might not out-code the bots, but knowing this stuff could let us pivot—manage the AI, not just get replaced by it.
What’s your take? Are we toast, or can we flip this AI mess into something we control? Anyone else got resources or scoops on where this train’s headed?

OP-If I wasn’t living through the nightmare of being here I would think you’re off your rocker. But I know you are not. I totally believe it.

Learn “Prompt Engineering”.

When the CEO is a bot, I'll believe they are serious. Until then it's just another excuse for the plan they had all along. Get rid of all of us.

Reading through the comments about the town hall, it's clear a lot of us are processing the implications of the AI push and the workforce shifts being discussed. It's understandable to feel a mix of uncertainty and frustration with the direction things seem to be going.

Instead of just letting the future happen to us, maybe we can take some of that energy and focus it on understanding and even getting ahead of this AI wave. The talk about building AI to automate tasks, potentially even some of our own, isn't going to disappear.

So, instead of just speculating about whether an AI bot can replace a help desk or a manager (though those are valid questions), how about we start exploring what it takes to build and manage those AI systems?

Here's a thought: Let's use AI to learn about AI.

Seriously. If the bank's priority is building AI, maybe our priority should be understanding it. There are tons of resources out there, many of them free or low-cost, that can help us get a grasp on this:

ChatGPT or other large language models: These tools can be used to learn the basics of AI, ask questions about different AI technologies, and even understand the terminology being thrown around. Try prompting it with questions like:
"Explain the basics of machine learning in simple terms."
"What are the different types of AI used in banking?"
"What skills are needed to build and maintain AI systems?"
"What are some reputable online courses for learning about AI?"
Online learning platforms: Coursera, edX, Udacity, and even YouTube have courses on AI, machine learning, and data science.
Industry articles and blogs: Start following publications that discuss AI in finance and technology.
Look, I get the frustration about workload, MFA on personal phones, and the feeling that our jobs might be on the line. But dwelling on the "can they replace this or that" might keep us stuck in a reactive mindset.

What if we started thinking about how we can contribute to this AI future, or at least understand it well enough to navigate it? Maybe some of us can position ourselves to be the ones who manage or oversee these AI systems, rather than being replaced by them.

It might feel like a long shot, but passively waiting to see what happens feels even worse. Let's use the very technology they're talking about to empower ourselves with knowledge.

Just a thought. We're all in this together, and maybe understanding the landscape better can help us figure out our next steps, whether it's within the bank or elsewhere.

Let's start prompting! What are some good resources you've found for learning about AI? Share them below.

Start with an AI bot that can fix your spelling.

Good summary