Goldman Sachs Introduces AI Assistant, Signaling Shift in Wall Street's Workforce

Is Wall Street's future human-free? Goldman Sachs embraces AI, thousands of jobs at risk

Goldman Sachs has introduced the GS AI Assistant to 10,000 employees, with plans to expand its use across the organisation. The AI tool performs tasks such as summarising emails and translating code, reflecting a growing trend in the financial sector. Other banks, including JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, are also adopting AI. Concerns about job displacement and AI limitations persist, but Goldman Sachs believes AI will empower employees rather than replace them. The bank envisions AI becoming an integral part of its workforce in the coming years.Goldman Sachs has introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, known as the GS AI Assistant, to approximately 10,000 employees as part of its broader plan to integrate AI into its operations. According to Marco Argenti, the bank's Chief Information Officer, the AI assistant aims to enhance productivity by supporting tasks such as summarising and proofreading emails, and translating programming code between languages. The bank plans to extend the tool to all knowledge workers by the end of the year. The AI assistant is designed to handle a variety of professional tasks with ease. "Think about all the tasks that you might want to complete with regards to a variety of use cases for all those professions that can be now at your fingertips," Argenti said in an interview with CNBC. The tool provides employees access to leading AI models, including OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Meta's Llama, depending on the task at hand. Goldman Sachs' AI initiative reflects a larger trend in the banking sector, with other major institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley also deploying similar tools to their employees. Argenti envisions a future where AI will gradually adopt the characteristics of experienced Goldman employees. "The AI assistant becomes really like talking to another GS employee," he said. Over the next three to five years, the technology is expected to advance to a stage where it can reason and operate similarly to human employees, executing complex multi-step tasks independently. "As we progress, the second step is when you're starting to have this agentic behaviour, that is, 'I'm completing a task on behalf of a Goldman employee, and I need to take a set of steps,'" Argenti explained. Goldman Sachs is not alone in its pursuit of AI-driven efficiency. JPMorgan Chase has already made its in-house AI tools available to over 200,000 employees, while Morgan Stanley provided access to 40,000 staff members by late 2023. The increasing reliance on AI tools has positioned the banking industry at the forefront of AI adoption. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently commented that AI models will soon be capable of coding at the level of mid-level software engineers. This development signals significant potential for AI to automate complex tasks in financial services and beyond. Despite the potential benefits, the rise of AI in banking raises concerns about job displacement. A Bloomberg report indicated that investment banks could eliminate as many as 200,000 jobs within the next three to five years, with support and operations roles being most at risk. Tomasz Noetzel, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, stated, "Routine, repetitive tasks are at risk, but AI will not eliminate them fully, rather it will lead to workforce transformation." However, Goldman Sachs maintains that AI will empower its employees rather than replace them. Argenti stressed, "The importance of having a phenomenal human workforce is actually going to be amplified. In my opinion, it always boils down to people. People are going to make a difference, because people are going to be the ones that actually evolve the AI, educate the AI, empower the AI, and then take action." The implementation of AI tools also comes with challenges such as potential inaccuracies, often referred to as AI "hallucinations," which can lead to misinformation. Ensuring the reliability of AI-generated content remains a priority for financial institutions. Furthermore, cybersecurity concerns persist, with AI-powered tools sometimes leaking sensitive data. Goldman Sachs' decision to develop its own AI system, rather than rely on public tools like ChatGPT, aims to mitigate such risks and maintain data security. As Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions continue to integrate AI into their workflows, the focus remains on balancing efficiency gains with the evolving role of human employees. Argenti remains optimistic about the collaboration between AI and human workers, viewing it as a means to augment capabilities rather than replace jobs. "The AI assistant will eventually learn how to check its own work, much like a human employee would," he stated. The ultimate goal is for the AI assistant to become an integral part of the workforce, seamlessly collaborating with employees to drive productivity and innovation.

Goldman Sachs Starts Process of Replacing Bankers With AI

Global investment firm Goldman Sachs is ready to start replacing its employees with AI. The company announced that it's rolled out a "GS AI assistant" to around 10,000 employees as part of its longer-term effort to introduce AI-powered "employees," as CNBC reports. Goldman chief information officer Marco Argenti told the broadcaster that the AI assistant will be tasked with summarizing and proofreading emails, as well as translating code between programming languages, for the time being. "Think about all the tasks that you might want to complete with regards to a variety of use cases for all those professions that can be now at your fingertips," Argenti told CNBC. The initiative is symptomatic of a larger trend, with banks including JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley doubling down on the use of AI tools. They frequently frame the experiments as efforts to make their employees' lives easier. But it doesn't take much reading between the lines that leaders are hopeful they'll eventually be able to replace human staffers with AI, especially if Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's recent pronouncements are anything to go by. Argenti predicts that in a matter of three to five years, AI models could start to erode the lines between humans and AI. "The AI assistant becomes really like talking to another GS employee," Argenti told CNBC. How useful the tool will actually prove remains to be seen. AI models have been repeatedly shown to "hallucinate" facts, a glaring problem that engineers are still struggling to eliminate. AI-based tools have also into a major cybersecurity concern, with companies finding out the hard way that AI chatbots still tend to leak sensitive data. Despite the tech's well-documented shortcomings and risks, Goldman is doubling down. "As we progress, the second step is when you're starting to have this agentic behavior, that is, 'I'm completing a task on behalf of a Goldman employee, and I need to take a set of steps,'" Argenti told CNBC. "That's where the model is going to start to do things like a Goldman employee, not only say things like a Goldman employee." Argenti also claimed that the AI would eventually learn how to check its own work, much like a human employee would. Eventually, as Bloomberg found earlier this year, global investment banks may cut as many as 200,000 jobs thanks to the emergence of competent AI models. Those that involve "routine, repetitive tasks are at risk" will be at particular risk, as Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Tomasz Noetzel told the broadcaster. "But AI will not eliminate them fully, rather it will lead to workforce transformation," he added. It's a common refrain we've heard tech leaders repeat for years -- and Argenti is happy to join the chorus. "In my opinion, it always boils down to people," he told CNBC. "People are going to make a difference, because people are going to be the ones that actually evolve the AI, educate the AI, empower the AI, and then take action."

Goldman Sachs rolls out an AI assistant for its employees as artificial intelligence sweeps Wall Street

The Goldman Sachs logo at the New York Stock Exchange in 2023.Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images file Goldman Sachs is rolling out a generative AI assistant to its bankers, traders and asset managers, the first stage in the evolution of a program that will eventually take on the traits of a seasoned Goldman employee, according to Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti. The bank has released a program called GS AI assistant to about 10,000 employees so far, with the goal that all the company's knowledge workers will have it this year, Argenti told CNBC in an exclusive interview. It will initially help with tasks including summarizing or proofreading emails or translating code from one language to another. "Think about all the tasks that you might want to complete with regards to a variety of use cases for all those professions that can be now at your fingertips," Argenti said. The Goldman assistant is a "very simple interface that allows you to have access to the latest and greatest models." Goldman's move means that, along with JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, the world's top three investment banks have aggressively released generative AI tools to their workforce, a remarkable development since ChatGPT went viral about two years ago. Wall Street has embraced generative artificial intelligence faster than any other disruptive technology in recent years, experts say, because of how adept large language models are in replicating aspects of human cognition. Today it can respond to queries, write emails and summarize lengthy documents, but expectations are high that future versions will exhibit so-called agentic abilities, meaning they can perform multistep tasks with little human intervention. In speaking with CNBC about his vision for artificial intelligence at the firm, Argenti -- who joined from Amazon in 2019 -- repeatedly likened the AI program to a new employee that will absorb Goldman culture over the coming years. Initially, the tool will mostly produce answers based on Goldman data that has been fed into AI models from OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Meta's Llama, depending on the task, said Argenti. The bank is also looking at models from companies including Anthropic, Mistral and Cohere, he added. "The AI assistant becomes really like talking to another GS employee," Argenti said. "As we progress, the second step is when you're starting to have this agentic behavior, that is, 'I'm completing a task on behalf of a Goldman employee, and I need to take a set of steps,'" he said. "That's where the model is going to start to do things like a Goldman employee, not only say things like a Goldman employee." This helps explain why companies have forbid employees from using ChatGPT for work, instead moving to create their own platforms to tap the technology. It allows firms to not only keep their information secure, but to also craft AI platforms that increasingly resemble the best examples of their own workforce. "For the AI to have a very specific identity that reflects the tenets, the values, the knowledge and the way of thinking of the firm is extremely important," Argenti said. In practice, that means that just as an experienced Goldman employee would know to double-check their work with multiple data sources or use a specific algorithm for a calculation, the AI will absorb those lessons, he said. But Argenti says he is most excited by the prospect of what comes later, in perhaps three to five years, as AI models increasingly blur the lines between human and machine thinking. This stage of AI at Goldman would have the model "actually reason more and become more like the way a Goldman employee would think," he said. So instead of being handed a run book, which is tech industry parlance for a set of step-by-step instructions for completing tasks or responding to incidents, the AI would be able to generate detailed plans "in the way that an experienced Goldman employee would do," Argenti said. The prospects of that future -- and the fact that Wall Street's workers are helping train a technology that may make some roles obsolete, while augmenting other jobs and creating new roles altogether -- may send a fresh wave of anxiety through employee ranks. Like at Goldman, other major investment banks are on target to give generative AI tools to their entire workforces in the coming months. More than 200,000 JPMorgan employees currently have access to in-house generative AI tools, according to a person with knowledge of that bank who declined to be identified speaking about internal matters. Roughly 40,000 Morgan Stanley employees had access to it as of late last year, the bank said in October. Finance and technology are seen as among the industries where employees are most prone to upheaval because of generative AI, allowing companies to potentially generate billions of dollars in additional profits. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told podcaster Joe Rogan earlier this month that its AI will be capable of writing code as well as mid-level software engineers this year. Global investment banks may shed as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years as the companies implement AI, according to a report from Bloomberg's research arm. The report, based on a survey of tech executives at major banks, said that support and operations roles known as the back and middle office were most at risk. At Goldman, however, the official stance is that AI will empower employees to do more, not necessarily result in the need for fewer humans. "The importance of having a phenomenal human workforce is actually going to be amplified," Argenti said. "In my opinion, it always boils down to people," he said. "People are going to make a difference, because people are going to be the ones that actually evolve the AI, educate the AI, empower the AI, and then take action."

Goldman Sachs rolls out an AI assistant for its employees as artificial intelligence sweeps Wall Street

Goldman Sachs is rolling out a generative AI assistant to its bankers, traders and asset managers, the first stage in the evolution of a program that will eventually take on the traits of a seasoned Goldman employee, according to Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti. The bank has released a program called GS AI assistant to about 10,000 employees so far, with the goal that all the company's knowledge workers will have it this year, Argenti told CNBC in an exclusive interview. It will initially help with tasks including summarizing or proofreading emails or translating code from one language to another. "Think about all the tasks that you might want to complete with regards to a variety of use cases for all those professions that can be now at your fingertips," Argenti said. The Goldman assistant is a "very simple interface that allows you to have access to the latest and greatest models." Goldman's move means that, along with JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, the world's top three investment banks have aggressively released generative AI tools to their workforce, a remarkable development since ChatGPT went viral about two years ago. Wall Street has embraced generative artificial intelligence faster than any other disruptive technology in recent years, experts say, because of how adept large language models are in replicating aspects of human cognition. Today it can respond to queries, write emails and summarize lengthy documents, but expectations are high that future versions will exhibit so-called "agentic" abilities, meaning they can perform multi-step tasks with little human intervention. In speaking with CNBC about his vision for artificial intelligence at the firm, Argenti -- who joined from Amazon in 2019 -- repeatedly likened the AI program to a new employee that will absorb Goldman culture over the coming years. Initially, the tool will mostly produce answers based on Goldman data that has been fed into AI models from OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Meta's Llama, depending on the task, said Argenti. The bank is also looking at models from companies including Anthropic, Mistral and Cohere, he added. "The AI assistant becomes really like talking to another GS employee," Argenti said.

Goldman Sachs wants to create AI that thinks and acts like a seasoned banker

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. The bank has released a program called GS AI assistant to about 10,000 employees so far, with the goal that all the company's knowledge workers will have it this year, CIO Marco Argenti told CNBC. It will initially help with tasks including summarizing or proofreading emails or translating code from one language to another. Today it can respond to queries, write emails and summarize lengthy documents, but expectations are high that future versions will exhibit agentic abilities, performing multistep tasks with little human intervention. In speaking with CNBC, Argenti -- who joined from Amazon in 2019 -- repeatedly likened the AI program to a new employee that will absorb Goldman culture over the coming years. Initially, the tool will mostly produce answers based on Goldman data that has been fed into AI models from OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Meta's Llama, depending on the task, said Argenti. The bank is also looking at models from companies including Anthropic, Mistral and Cohere, he added. "The AI assistant becomes really like talking to another GS employee," Argenti said. "As we progress, the second step is when you're starting to have this agentic behavior. That's where the model is going to start to do things like a Goldman employee, not only say things like a Goldman employee." In practice, that means that just as an experienced Goldman employee would know to double-check their work with multiple data sources or use a specific algorithm for a calculation, the AI will absorb those lessons, he said. Further down the line, in perhaps three to five years time, the model would "actually reason more and become more like the way a Goldman employee would think," Goldman is among a wave of Wall Street firms rolling out generative AI technology. Morgan Stanley is understood to be following a similar path, distibuting OpenAI chatbot tools to up to 40,000 employees in its Wall Street division, while JPMorgan has also released an inhouse developed Generative AI chatbot to staff, likening it to a having a research analyst at your desk. A recent report from Bloomberg estimated that up to 200,000 jobs could be at risk as intelligent robots become embedded in financial firms.

Goldman Debuts in-House AI That's 'Like Talking to an Employee' | PYMNTS.com

Goldman Sachs has introduced an AI assistant for its traders, bankers and asset managers. Marco Argenti, the bank's chief information officer, tells CNBC in an interview published Tuesday (Jan. 21) that it's part of a larger artificial intelligence (AI) program that will ultimately take on the traits of a Goldman Sachs (GS) employee. The GS AI Assistant has been offered to around 10,000 employees so far, with the goal of getting it to all the company's knowledge workers this year, Argenti said. It will initially help with tasks including summarizing or proofreading emails or translating code from one language to another. "Think about all the tasks that you might want to complete with regards to a variety of use cases for all those professions that can be now at your fingertips," Argenti said. The GS assistant is a "very simple interface that allows you to have access to the latest and greatest models." The CNBC report notes that, with this move, all three of the world's biggest investment banks have "aggressively" introduced generative AI tools to their employees -- the others being Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase. Argenti compared the tool to a new employee that will absorb Goldman's culture in the years to come. At first, it will mostly produce answers based on bank data that has been fed into AI models from OpenAI, Meta, Google and others. "The AI assistant becomes really like talking to another GS employee," Argenti said. "As we progress, the second step is when you're starting to have this agentic behavior, that is, 'I'm completing a task on behalf of a Goldman employee, and I need to take a set of steps,'" he said. "That's where the model is going to start to do things like a Goldman employee, not only say things like a Goldman employee." PYMNTS wrote recently about the rise of AI agents in the corporate world, where they are on more duties, shifting from assistants to key players in B2B processes. "After all, in the B2B space, relationships matter. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all interactions," that report said. "Today's customers expect personalized, high-touch experiences, even from the businesses they engage with. Agentic AI systems are increasingly able to learn about individual customer preferences, anticipate their needs, and offer tailored solutions -- without the need for human intervention." In addition, AI agents can track behavior, predict future needs and even offer up insights on customer satisfaction. That means businesses can not only deliver an enhanced customer experience, but also foster long-term loyalty -- a critical part of any good B2B operation.