Axis Bank Ltd. on Saturday said its employee strength edged down slightly at the close of the financial year ended March 31, 2026, linking the decline to ongoing investments in technology that are starting to deliver efficiency benefits.
Addressing analysts during the post-results conference call, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Chaudhry explained that the moderation in headcount reflects the natural outcome of the bank's sustained push towards digital transformation. According to him, technology initiatives undertaken over the past several years are now translating into higher productivity and smoother operations across the organisation.
The private sector lender's total workforce stood at about 1.01 lakh employees at the end of FY26, compared with nearly 1.04 lakh a year earlier, implying a net reduction of roughly 3,000 staff. Axis Bank stressed that the change was not driven by cuts in any particular vertical but was spread across functions, even as the bank continued to scale up its physical network.
During the year, the bank added close to 400 branches across the country, a move that required fresh hiring and extensive training alongside its digitisation efforts. Management reiterated that Axis Bank's approach remains focused on maintaining a balance between branch-led growth and technology-enabled efficiency.
Chaudhry noted that the bank has been consistently earmarking around 9–10 per cent of its operating expenditure for technology for the past three to four years. These investments, he said, were made with a long-term perspective, independent of short-term business cycles, to strengthen the bank's competitive positioning.
While automation has helped streamline operations, the bank clarified that artificial intelligence has not yet played a major role in reducing manpower requirements. At present, AI is largely being deployed to simplify processes and shorten transaction turnaround times rather than to directly substitute human roles.
On the financial front, Axis Bank reported a largely flat performance for the March quarter, posting a profit of Rs 7,071 crore compared to Rs 7,117 crore in the same period last year.
The bank also announced a dividend of Rs 1 per share for FY26.
(With inputs from IANS)
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