Pulling all-nighters to assemble PowerPoint presentations. Punching numbers into Excel spreadsheets. Finessing the language on esoteric financial documents that may never be read by another soul.
“The structure of these jobs has remained largely unchanged at least for a decade,” said Julia Dhar, head of BCG’s Behavioral Science Lab and a consultant to major banks experimenting with AI. The inevitable question, as she put it, is “do you need fewer analysts?” Representatives for Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and others said it was too early to comment on specific job changes. But the consulting giant Accenture estimated that AI could replace or supplement nearly three-quarters of bank employees’ working hours across the industry.
If they persevere, they move up the ranks to associate, then director and managing director; a handful end up running divisions. Although grueling, the life of a senior banker can be glamorous, involving traveling around the globe to pitch clients and working on big-money corporate merger deals.
“AI will enable us to do tasks that take 10 hours in 10 seconds,” said Jay Horine, co-head of investment banking at JPMorgan, describing analyst jobs. “My hope and belief is it will allow the job to be more interesting.”