Background: National Australia Bank, or NAB, is Australia's third-largest bank, employing more than 42,000 people. But the banking sector has been facing a wave of job cuts as AI reshapes the industry. Last year, NAB cut around 400 local jobs while continuing to hire workers overseas.

What happened: Now, NAB is cutting 2,500 jobs over the next nine months... or 6% of its workforce. And around 1,500 employees are expected to lose their jobs by Christmas. NAB says the cuts will affect strategy, IT, compliance and risk, and people and culture teams. But NAB says customer-facing roles won't be on the line.

What else: The shake-up is about reducing duplication and speeding up decision-making by removing what NAB calls "unnecessary management." But get this: the bank is still hiring overseas, with India and Vietnam-based roles reportedly advertised on LinkedIn this week.

What's the key learning?

💡 Having too many cooks in the kitchen is bad business. When multiple people or systems do the same task, it creates duplication, wastes resources, and drives up costs.  

💡 NAB's cuts may be about more than eliminating duplication. The bank cited "rapid technological change" but didn't directly mention AI.

💡 AI is putting more jobs in tech and finance at risk. US tech and finance have reportedly been losing around 28,000 jobs a month to AI automation, while Australian banks like ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, and Westpac have also been shedding roles.    

And with AI increasingly taking over routine tasks, the question is whether NAB is cutting cooks from the kitchen... or letting AI do more of the cooking.