We did not concoct a plan to slash 55,000 jobs in last 36 hours: BT CEO

London, May 19 (IANS) The UK telecommunication giant BT Group, which has announced to slash a massive 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade, did not suddenly concoct a plan in the last 36 hours and announced it to the world, its CEO Philip Jansen has said.

The telecom company which has around 130,000 employees as of today, will move to a total workforce of between 75,000 and 90,000 people.

"There is no surprise on the jobs. This is not a new plan that we suddenly concocted in the last 36 hours and announced it, right. This is the plan that we have been working on for a long-time," Jansen told analysts during the company's earnings call on Thursday.

He said that the company did not announce this before "because we wanted to get some runs on the board in terms of delivery of performance, both in terms of build and provisioning, but also efficiencies and I think we've done enough of that".

On AI and job threats, the BT CEO said that there will be new jobs as a result of new technologies.

"We don't know yet, no one does, but anytime there's been a big jump in technology, new jobs appear, new things, and they will appear and we'll be able to participate in that. For now, we've got to get those efficiencies," said Jansen.

The company is aiming to enable growth by transferring productivity and customer outcomes through digitising, automating and reskilling of its workforce.

"We will show measurable progress through fewer business applications and reduce reliance on legacy networks, both to a tiny fraction of today's level by the end of the decade. Future BT will be more efficient and need fewer people," said the company.