There were probably articles very similar to this written when ATM's first bengan rolling out in the 60/70s.
I imagine it's hitting the jobs a step or two above the tellers as well.
I don't know if you use ATM's a ton, but when it's the only option you have for interacting with your bank, it's pretty terrible, because your options for if something goes wrong is to call a number and get redirected to some general call center in probably some other country and wait while some minimally paid chap who couldn't care less about your problems follows a script and then when they can't figure it out, tell you they will file a ticket and get back to you in 3-7 business days.
I agree software and robots can do the job better with the caveat that you are using the well trodden majority use case. The moment something goes wrong (software bug, does the wrong thing, etc), or you are trying to do something slightly different, good luck.
My bank (First Direct) picks up only barely after the ringing tone starts, and the person you're talking to is an expert. They have no branches, so everything must be solved on a phone call (or you can use their web site of course). Nobody needs or wants branches, especially branches that are only open when you've got better things to do.
Their support is really good and always human.
I also bank with Citi, BA, and Chase. They have tellers and suck so much.
Wells Fargo employees had to generate more and more service fees to justify their employment. That was what came of the investigation a few years ago. If they weren't opening X new accounts every month they would be terminated.
I foresee a future where every major bank just gives their clients (hedge funds, asset managers) an API that they can call to electronically trade securities, rather than a phone number they can call. This is already in progress (see Tradeweb)
At the end of the day, when you’re competing with 6 other banks to offer a better bid-offer spread, you need to cut costs any way you can, and that means cutting humans.
Moreover, as sales and trading becomes more commoditized, all the salespeople get the axe. No need to take clients out to expensive lunches, etc.
Both are true, but this time the scale and speed is the difference. Even in software which is considered a safe job, I am much more productive today than just a few years ago because of better tools, third party services, libraries etc. We are able to do a lot more with a lot less with every passing year.
This time it is different and it is not going to be pretty, unless we take a step back and look at ideas like Universal Basic Income etc.
One other mindset that is quite difficult to change (at least in the U.S) is tying a person's self-worth to the amount of hard work they put in.
They do move to different jobs, but most likely not better ones. An observable consequence of automation is to put pressure on the 'labor market', leaving fewer and fewer opportunities with increasing requirements for job seekers.