Kirkby told the newspaper that BT’s plans to cull more than 40,000 jobs and strip out 3 billion pounds ($4 billion) of costs by the end of the decade “did not reflect the full potential of AI”. Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile provider had said in 2023 it would cut as many as 55,000 jobs, including contractors, by 2030, with then-CEO Philip Jansen saying the company would rely on a much smaller workforce and significantly reduced cost base by the end of the 2020s. Kirkby, who took over from Jansen a year ago, has also opened the door to a possible future spin-off of Openreach, the company’s network infrastructure business, the FT said.