Goldman Sachs Embraces AI: Devin, the Autonomous Coder, Joins the Workforce

Goldman Sachs is testing viral AI agent Devin as a 'new employee' | TechCrunch

Cognition's AI coding agent Devin has scored a major customer: Goldman Sachs, the bank's CIO, Marco Argenti, told CNBC. "We're going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee," Argenti told the outlet, adding that it plans to roll out hundreds of instances of Devin, potentially growing to thousands. The bank currently employs around 12,000 human developers, it says. Despite the financial industry's reputation for being slow and stodgy, Goldman Sachs tends to be cutting edge, and it's been internally using developer copilots since at least 2024, it said. Devin is an interesting choice. When Cognition released it last year, it blew up on social media. Some researchers then found that it struggled with more complex coding work. As of May, Devin is now on version 2.1, and Cognition says, performs best on large codebases that provide it with ample context. Devin won't replace humans at the bank. Argenti advocates for a "hybrid" workforce, so instances of it will be supervised by a human and, he hopes, improve their productivity.

Goldman Sachs is piloting its first autonomous coder in major AI milestone for Wall Street

A screen displays the the company logo for Goldman Sachs on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 7, 2025. The bank is testing an autonomous software engineer from artificial intelligence startup Cognition that is expected to soon join the ranks of the firm's 12,000 human developers, Goldman tech chief Marco Argenti told CNBC. The program, named Devin, became known in technology circles last year with Cognition's claim that it had created the world's first AI software engineer. Demo videos showed the program operating as a full-stack engineer, completing multi-step assignments with minimal intervention. "We're going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee who's going to start doing stuff on the behalf of our developers," Argenti said this week in an interview. "Initially, we will have hundreds of Devins [and] that might go into the thousands, depending on the use cases," he said. It's the latest indicator of the dizzying speed in which AI is being adopted in the corporate world. Just last year, Wall Street firms including JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were rolling out cognitive assistants based on OpenAI models to get employees acquainted with the technology. Now, the arrival of agentic AI on Wall Street -- referencing programs like Devin that don't just help humans with tasks like summarizing documents or writing emails, but instead execute complex multi-step jobs like building entire apps -- signals a much larger shift, with greater potential rewards. Tech giants including Microsoft and Alphabet have said AI is already producing about 30% of the code on some projects, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said last month that AI handles as much as 50% of the work at his company. At Goldman Sachs, one of the world's top investment banks, this more powerful form of AI has the potential to boost worker productivity by up to three or four times the rate of previous AI tools, according to Argenti. Devin will be supervised by human employees and will handle jobs that engineers often consider drudgery, like updating internal code to newer programing languages, he said.

Goldman Sachs adds AI coder Devin to its headcount

Goldman Sachs just hired a coder who doesn't sleep, eat, or cash a paycheck. The investment bank announced Friday that it's testing Devin, an AI software engineer built by London-based startup Cognition, with plans to deploy the autonomous program across its tech teams, according to Goldman's chief information officer, Marco Argenti. "We're going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee who's going to start doing stuff on the behalf of our developers," Argenti told CNBC. "Initially, we will have hundreds of Devins [and] that might go into the thousands, depending on the use cases." Devin rose to prominence last year when Cognition claimed it had created the world's first AI software engineer. Demo videos showed the system working end to end as a full-stack developer that is capable of completing multistep coding tasks with very little human input. Devin's "hire" signals more than just an experiment; Goldman has 12,000 developers on staff. According to Argenti, the bank plans to scale Devin "into the thousands" -- potentially transforming productivity by a factor of three to four (compared with previous-generation assistants) for software teams. Devin will focus on the kind of routine jobs engineers often dread -- such as updating legacy code -- under the supervision of human developers. Devin was built by Cognition, a startup founded in late 2023 that is already valued at nearly $4 billion. The company is backed by Palantir's Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale, among others. While Goldman is using Devin, it doesn't own a stake in the company, a source familiar with the bank's investments told CNBC. This move comes amid Goldman's rollout of its GS AI Assistant, a firm-wide generative AI platform already in use across investment banking, wealth management, and research roles. The platform works with models from OpenAI, Google's Gemini, and others to power tools for summarizing documents, drafting analyses, and generating production software code. But Goldman's embrace of AI coding tools raises some big questions. The move comes as AI continues to reshape white-collar work across industries. But rather than using generative AI, Devin represents a new class of "agentic AI" -- systems designed to work autonomously, not just to assist with emails or research but to execute entire workflows from start to finish. The potential implications for labor are already sparking concern. Bloomberg Intelligence said in January that banks could cut as many as 200,000 jobs globally over the next three to five years due to AI adoption. Argenti said Goldman sees a future where humans and AIs work in tandem, describing it as a "hybrid workforce." "It's really about people and AIs working side by side," Argenti said. "Engineers are going to be expected to have the ability to really describe problems in a coherent way and turn it into prompts ... and then be able to supervise the work of those agents." But while the official messaging might emphasize augmentation over replacement, Goldman's president, John Waldron, in late May, cited 20% productivity gains among developer teams using AI tools, hinting at leaner future headcounts. Not all roles are created equal. MarketWatch reporting warned that traditional analyst paths -- the entry‑level conveyor belt -- could shrink dramatically. Still, jobs that demand sector expertise, client relationships, and high‑stakes judgment are expected to remain resilient, even as routine coding and research tasks become increasingly automated. Argenti told CNBC of Devin: "Those models are basically just as good as any developer; it's really cool." Whether that's terrifying or exciting probably depends on at which side of the keyboard you sit.

Goldman Sachs doesn't have to hire a $180,000 software engineer -- meet Devin, its new AI-powered worker

The newest hire at Goldman Sachs won't be able to have a coffee chat with co-worker Rishi Sunak, or attend the firm's after-work happy hour -- rather, it'll be working all day on its coding assignments. The Wall Street investment bank recently unveiled it had hired Devin: a new AI-powered autonomous software engineer, created by AI startup Cognition. With the tool being capable of conducting end-to-end coding tasks, Goldman hopes it will improve worker productivity by up to three or four times the rate of previous AI tools, according to Goldman's chief information officer Marco Argenti. "We're going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee who's going to start doing stuff on the behalf of our developers," Argenti recently told CNBC. Goldman Sachs plans to launch Devin by the hundreds -- maybe eventually even by the thousands, Argenti added -- joining the nearly 12,000 existing software engineers at the company. He said this move will hopefully help usher in a "hybrid workforce" era where humans and AI coexist. "It's really about people and AIs working side by side," Argenti said. "Engineers are going to be expected to have the ability to really describe problems in a coherent way and turn it into prompts ... and then be able to supervise the work of those agents." Despite the push to launch Devin, Goldman is continuing to hire software engineers, with dozens of open roles around the world. The salary of some New York-based associate roles start out at around $115,000 annually -- and can even extend to $180,000. But business leaders have warned that these early career roles are the ones that AI might make obsolete the soonest. For example, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. Ford CEO Jim Farley went even further, and warned that all white-collar work could disappear in the U.S. -- beyond those early in their careers. "There's more than one way to the American Dream, but our whole education system is focused on four-year [college] education," Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival last month. "Hiring an entry worker at a tech company has fallen 50% since 2019. Is that really where we want all of our kids to go? Artificial intelligence is gonna replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S." For the banking industry in particular, this AI-driven workforce transformation could lead to 200,000 fewer people on Wall Street within the next three to five years, according to Bloomberg. However, Argenti said that those who choose to embrace AI will be best equipped for a successful future -- and it's especially important for young talent facing dwindling entry-level roles. "The AI shift is happening in years, not decades," Argenti wrote in a commentary piece for Fortune. "Workers who lack proficiency in leveraging AI tools will fall behind, and those who have learned to harness it to elevate their work will advance," he added.

Meet Devin: Goldman Sachs' new AI software engineer that never sleeps

Subscribe to the Daily newsletter.Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you every day Cognition introduced the technology, which it hailed as the world's "first AI software engineer," last year. That tech, known as Devin, was designed to execute software engineering tasks independently, making thousands of decisions along the way. Using natural language prompts, programmers can put Devin to work doing complex tasks like building an app or finding and fixing bugs in a codebase. Cognition describes Devin as a "a tireless, skilled teammate, equally ready to build alongside you or independently complete tasks for you to review" - a description as likely to strike fear in the hearts of workers as it is to have executives seeing dollar signs. Shortly after its launch, the founder of prominent AI search engine Perplexity praised Cognition's Devin as the first AI agent "that seems to cross the threshold of what is human level and works reliably." The company was valued at $4 billion in March after raising hundreds of millions in investment led by 8VC, an early stage venture capital firm founded by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Cognition is obviously leaning on Devin's anthropomorphic branding to generate buzz and make Devin feel like a one to one substitute for a human that can write code, but so far that strategy seems to be working.

Wall Street just hired Devin and he* is not here to fetch coffee.: By Jan Daniel Semrau

In a surprisingly innovative move, Goldman Sachs is piloting an AI agent with Cognition's Devin for software development tasks (remember can Devin build Devin?) I think , this initiative marks a significant shift in how major financial institutions perceive and integrate AI into their operations. Devin, an agentic AI, is similar to Ternary Capital Group's Matt designed to plan, make decisions, and carry out actions based on defined goals and constraints, much like a human employee. The implications of this development are profound. As a CEO of a Financial Cognitive Agent Company, I see this as a pivotal moment in the evolution of AI in finance. The adoption of AI agents like Devin (or Matt for that matter) does lead to increased efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced decision-making capabilities within financial institutions. However, it also raises important questions about the alignment of AI behavior with human values and intentions. The challenge isn't just to make these agents useful; it's to ensure they don't take dangerous shortcuts or misinterpret their objectives in harmful ways. You can see my research on Game Theory and Agent Reasoning in Finance for a deep dive. As we move towards a future where AI plays a more significant role in the workplace, aligning AI behavior with human values becomes a critical task. As we move towards a future where AI plays a more significant role in the workplace, aligning AI behavior with human values becomes a critical task. This pilot by Goldman Sachs is a step towards understanding how we can harness the power of AI while mitigating potential risks. *Yes, I anthropomorphized Devin on purpose. Here is the news article: https://www.fastcompany.com/91366706/meet-devin-goldman-sachs-new-ai-software-engineer-that-never-sleeps

End of six-figure coding jobs? Meet Devin: Goldman's new AI engineer that works like a human, but for no salary

Meet Goldman Sachs' newest engineer, one who doesn't need coffee breaks, paychecks, or stock options. Devin, an AI-powered software developer, is a sign of the Goldman Sachs' brave step into the future of tech work. with AI tools advancing fast, white-collar jobs may never look the same again. Goldman Sachs' AI software engineer can apparently code with the same accuracy as a person. The move aims to eliminate the need to hire a $180,000 software engineer. According to Goldman's chief information officer Marco Argenti, the tool's ability to perform end-to-end coding tasks is expected to increase worker productivity by up to three or four times the rate of earlier AI tools. "Devin will be like our new employee who will begin doing things on behalf of our developers, so we're going to start augmenting our workforce with him," Argenti recently told CNBC. The company plans to increase worker productivity by more than four times using AI tools and possibly unleash thousands of them. Although the company's tech leader envisions a "hybrid workforce" that combines AI and humans, executives like Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, caution about a decline in white-collar jobs, as per a report by Fortune. ALSO READ: Is this the end of salesman? Microsoft layoffs signal death of old-school sales - AI set to help tech-savvy pros Devin is an AI-powered autonomous software engineer who was recently hired by the Wall Street investment bank. Devin was developed by the AI startup Cognition. Goldman Sachs intends to hire hundreds of Devins, possibly even thousands in the future, Argenti said, to join the company's current workforce of almost 12,000 software engineers. Marco Argenti expressed his hope that this action will contribute to the emergence of a "hybrid workforce," where AI and humans coexist. According to Argenti, "it's really about people and AIs working side by side." "Engineers will need to be able to effectively explain issues in a comprehensible manner, translate them into prompts, and then be able to oversee the work of those agents," as per a reprot by Fortune. With dozens of open positions worldwide, Goldman is still hiring software engineers in spite of the push to launch Devin. Some associate positions in New York start at about $115,000 per year, and some even go as high as $180,000. However, company executives have cautioned that these early career roles are the ones that AI may replace the earliest. ALSO READ: Don't board a Carnival Cruise without knowing these top game-changing rule updates Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, for instance, projected that within five years, AI would replace half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, went one step further and issued a warning: outside of those in their early careers, all white-collar jobs could vanish in the United States. Within the next three to five years, Wall Street may see 200,000 fewer employees as a result of this AI-driven workforce transformation, according to Bloomberg. The best candidates for a prosperous future, particularly young talent confronting dwindling entry-level positions, will be those who embrace AI. Those who have learned to use AI tools to improve their work will advance as the shift to AI occurs in years rather than decades. Professionals who are not adept at using AI tools will lag behind, while those who are will progress. What purpose does Devin serve for Goldman Sachs? Devin, an AI engineer, is assisting with end-to-end coding tasks, increasing developer productivity by three to four times. Will Devin replace human coders at Goldman Sachs? Not entirely, but it may reduce the demand for entry-level positions. Goldman still intends to hire engineers, but it is preparing for a hybrid human-AI workforce.

Goldman Bets On AI Developer To Boost Productivity -- Could This Be The Future Of Wall Street Jobs? - Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS)

Goldman Sachs GS has begun testing Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer developed by Cognition Labs, as it seeks to integrate AI agents alongside its 12,000 human developers, tech chief Marco Argenti told CNBC. Argenti said the firm will start deploying hundreds -- and eventually thousands -- of Devins to handle routine engineering tasks, such as updating internal codebases. These AI agents will operate under human supervision, significantly boosting developer productivity. Also Read: Goldman Sachs Isn't Just A Trading Powerhouse, Analyst Says It's Entering New Era Of Growth Goldman becomes the first major bank to pilot Devin, which gained attention in 2024 after Cognition Labs claimed it had built the world's first fully autonomous software engineer. The startup, valued at nearly $4 billion, counts Peter Thiel's Founders Fund among its backers. Argenti described the initiative as a step toward a "hybrid workforce," where humans and AI work side by side. The move underscores Wall Street's accelerating adoption of agentic AI tools, which extend beyond assisting with tasks and executing complex, multi-step projects, such as building apps or modernizing infrastructure. As AI adoption grows, concerns about job displacement continue. Bloomberg's research unit estimates that banks may cut up to 200,000 jobs in the next 3-5 years due to AI automation. Goldman's approach, however, utilizes AI to offload repetitive tasks, allowing human developers to focus on higher-value projects. Alibaba Group BABA, Salesforce CRM and Microsoft MSFT each expect AI to play a central role in reshaping the modern workplace by handling routine tasks and boosting human productivity. Alibaba forecasts that AI-powered digital colleagues -- virtual assistants capable of performing repetitive work -- will become common within five years. According to Huang Fei, VP at Alibaba Cloud, these AI agents are already gaining traction across industries, allowing employees to focus more on strategic and creative work. At Salesforce, CEO Marc Benioff said in June that AI now completes up to 50% of tasks in areas such as engineering and support. He even joked about AI replacing him, underscoring its expanding influence in leadership and operations. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also weighed in, stating in March that AI won't replace knowledge workers but will redefine cognitive tasks, much like email or spreadsheets have transformed office work. He sees AI agents freeing people to focus on high-value activities. Price Action: GS stock is down 1.29% at $700.00 premarket as of last check on Friday. Read Next: Amazon CEO Says Generative AI Will Reduce Total Corporate Workforce Photo: Shutterstock GSThe Goldman Sachs Group Inc$703.00-0.86%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum86.10Growth71.18Quality41.05ValueN/APrice TrendShortMediumLongOverviewBABAAlibaba Group Holding Ltd$106.900.24%CRMSalesforce Inc$263.00-0.37%MSFTMicrosoft Corp$499.49-0.40%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Goldman Sachs Hires Devin AI: What This Means for Entry-Level Engineers

Goldman Sachs Deploys Devin AI to Transform Banking with 24/7 Automation, Putting 200,000 Tech Jobs at Risk Goldman Sachs has introduced an AI software engineer called Devin AI, in a daring move that rocked the tech and financial sectors. This advanced AI model has been developed by London-based startup Cognition. The artificial intelligence software engineer works 24/7 and never needs a lunch break, let alone a salary. The bank intends to deploy thousands of Devin AI units in phases. This decision highlights the massive investment financial giants are making in AI, particularly in banking, to enhance speed and reduce operational bottlenecks.