About 50 roles across finance, HR and IT are expected to be made redundant, with a further 35 roles potentially re-scoped or reorganised, according to the Financial Times. The firm is also shifting more support work to its global hubs in Poland and India.

A spokesperson for Clifford Chance said: “In line with our strategy to strengthen our operations, we can confirm we are proposing changes to some of our London-based business professional functions.

“The proposed changes could see the creation of new roles, changes to the scope of roles, revised team structures and in some cases a reduction in roles.”

The move comes as large professional services firms increasingly acknowledge that AI is reshaping workforce planning. PwC’s global chairman, Mohamed Kande, said the firm would not meet its previous goal of hiring 100,000 staff over five years, pointing to AI as a key factor reducing demand for entry-level roles.

“When we made the plans to hire that many people, the world looked very, very different,” he told the BBC. “Now we have artificial intelligence. We want to hire, but I don’t know if it’s going to be the same level of people that we hire – it will be a different set of people.”

However, Mr Kande added that PwC was having difficulty in recruiting AI specialists. “We are looking for hundreds and hundreds of engineers today to help us drive our AI agenda, but we just cannot find them,” he said.