T. Rowe Price has not disclosed how many employees were affected by a round of layoffs in July, but during an earnings call Friday morning executives hinted at future staff reductions, possibly thanks to artificial intelligence.

Robert W. Sharps, T. Rowe’s board chairman, president and chief executive officer, told shareholders that the Baltimore-based investment management firm had a “challenging quarter,” but that it was setting itself up for long-term success.

A key part of that success, he said, will come from keeping a firm hand on expenses.

“We have developed a broad, ongoing plan to reduce our expense growth over time,” said Sharps, who made nearly $20 million in 2024, a 50% pay raise from the prior year. “We believe that our plan will drive efficiency to fund investment in the future of the business.”

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T. Rowe Price laid off about 2% of its employees in late 2022 and another 2% in 2023. The company had about 8,000 employees at the start of this year, most of whom were based in the Baltimore area.

This spring, the 88-year-old firm moved its global headquarters from downtown Baltimore to a new waterfront building in Harbor Point.

Then in July, T. Rowe Price said it was laying off an unspecified number of employees.

During Friday’s call, Chief Financial Officer Jen Dardis said the firm “eliminated a number of roles in mid-July” as part of an “expense management program.”

Dardis echoed Sharps, calling the expense management program “broad and ongoing.”

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In response to a question later in the call, Chief Investment Officer Eric Veiel spoke at length about artificial intelligence, calling it a “game changer” for investing.

Veiel said T. Rowe Price will not only use AI to automate mundane tasks, but also to analyze decades of the firm’s proprietary data and help guide investment decisions.

While Veiel did not say the technology would replace human work, leading to layoffs, he described AI as creating “cost savings” in “labor.”

As part of the earnings call, T. Rowe Price reported a mixed bag for the second quarter. Its revenue was lower than anticipated, but earnings beat expectations. The company’s stock price seesawed early Friday morning, falling slightly.