Wall Street’s AI adoption to drive hiring boom for now

[FRANKFURT] The robots are not coming for your job, yet.

Two-thirds of financial services companies will likely see staff numbers rise initially as they adopt artificial intelligence (AI), a survey stated, raising doubts that the new technology will lead to quick cost savings.

More than 70 per cent of respondents in a Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) survey also said that they expect AI adoption to lead to higher operating costs over the next three years.

Most still anticipate productivity to rise more quickly, based on the survey of 151 senior employees in the financial services sector published on Wednesday (Dec 10).

“The findings reinforce that AI’s early phase in financial services is likely to be more about capability building than cost reduction,” analysts Diksha Gera and Tomasz Noetzel wrote in the report. “As automation scales, we see potential for cost ratios to normalise after 2027 to 2028, unlocking efficiency-driven margin expansion.”

Companies across financial services are seeking to use AI to speed up services and cut costs, with firms including Dutch lender ING Groep, German insurer Allianz and US bank Goldman Sachs tying the technology to headcount reductions.

But concerns about risk and compliance issues have so far resulted in a relatively slow adoption compared with industries such as retail or technology, analysts wrote.

In the long run, however, market observers generally agree that AI will have a significant and lasting impact on the industry, with UBS Group research saying that some of that may start becoming visible next year. 

“There’s a decent probability that in 2026 the equity market decides –perhaps on still-scant hard evidence – that banks will be one of the most significant beneficiaries of the rapidly improving technology on offer,” UBS analyst Jason Napier said in a note on Tuesday. 

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Respondents across industries rated the scale of AI disruption as either “high” or “very high”. Pharma companies see AI cutting drug-development costs 16 per cent, while media leaders anticipate lower content costs and personalised offerings, according to the survey. Consumer firms see AI agents becoming shopping companions.

Executives across industries are “racing to wire it into their business cores”, said BI analyst Anurag Rana. “AI is no longer a side project.” BLOOMBERG