Disrupt perceptions! As AI took the world by storm, Wall Street instead set off a recruitment boom
The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to a critical market research data, about two-thirds of Wall Street financial services companies may initially see a significant increase in the number of employees in the actual business model after adopting artificial intelligence applications throughout the company. This also raises questions about whether this new technology will quickly bring large-scale cost savings. This latest survey highlights that artificial intelligence or robots will not seize jobs on a large scale, at least not now.
According to a Bloomberg Intelligence survey of Wall Street agencies, more than 70% of Wall Street respondents said they expect AI-driven applications to lead to higher operating costs within the next three years. However, most respondents still expect business productivity to increase more quickly. The survey report on 151 senior employees in the US high-end financial services industry was officially released on Wednesday.
“The survey results reinforce the view that the earliest stages of artificial intelligence in the financial services sector were probably more about popularizing and building capabilities than about drastic cost cuts.” Diksha Gera (Diksha Gera) and Tomasz Noetzel (Tomasz Noetzel), senior analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a report released on Wednesday. “As AI-driven automation technology is scaled up, we believe the cost ratio may normalize after 2027 to 2028, which will significantly drive profit expansion driven by operating efficiency.”
Wall Street financial services companies are seeking to use artificial intelligence to accelerate the accuracy and efficiency of customer service, and seek to drastically reduce operating costs. Large financial institutions such as AMRO ING Financial Group, German insurance and investment agency Allianz SE (Allianz SE), and Wall Street financial giant Goldman Sachs (Goldman Sachs) are beginning to link this technology to layoffs. However, according to Bloomberg Intelligence's research data, in fact, due to risk and compliance issues, artificial intelligence applications in the global financial industry are slow to be adopted in other industry sectors such as retail and a wide range of technology-driven fields.
However, in the long run, market observers generally believe that artificial intelligence will have a significant and lasting impact on the financial industry. A study by the major international bank UBS Group (UBS) suggests that some of these effects may gradually become apparent starting next year.
UBS analyst Jason Napier (Jason Napier) said in a report on Tuesday: “By 2026, global stock markets may price a major trend — perhaps with hard evidence still scarce, the world's major commercial banks will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of rapidly developing technology.”
The Bloomberg Intelligence survey also shows that executives in various industries around the world have said that the scale of “disruptive indicators” brought about by artificial intelligence is “high” or “very high.” Major pharmaceutical companies expect artificial intelligence to save at least 16% on drug development costs, while media leaders expect artificial intelligence to reduce content development costs and provide personalized high-quality content services. Consumer goods companies believe that artificial intelligence assistants will become shopping guide partners and delivery service partners.
“Admittedly, executives from various industries are competing to incorporate it into their core business.” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana (Anurag Rana) said. “From now on, artificial intelligence will no longer be a marginal project.”
Wall Street financial giant Goldman Sachs Group officially launched an “AI Assistant” internal application tool driven by generative artificial intelligence technology throughout the group this year, striving to greatly improve the agency's overall productivity and comprehensively innovate operating efficiency. According to some information revealed by people familiar with the matter, GS AI Assistant will help Goldman Sachs's internal employees “from compiling complex documents, accurately drafting the initial version of research and return on investment content, to implementing professional data analysis processes.”
The AI application layer's “bull market narrative” continues to be strengthened
Previously, Google, a leader in cloud computing and search engines, AppLovin, an AI application leader focusing on “AI+ digital advertising,” Palantir, a leader in “AI+ data analysis,” and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and American cloud software giant Saifushi, which focuses on the customer relationship management software (CRM) field, have all published extremely strong performance data and future performance prospects since this year. This means that not only is the demand for AI computing power infrastructure represented by Nvidia's AI GPUs extremely strong, but demand for AI software applications, especially enterprise-level AI application software that can comprehensively improve B-side operational efficiency, is also strong, and it is rapidly penetrating all walks of life.
Judging from the current technological trajectory, the development direction of AI application software focuses on “generative AI application software” (such as DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Sora, and Claude launched by Anthropic), and on the basis of generative AI, AI functions are shifting from chatbox-style question-and-answer to “AI agents that independently perform various complicated and complex tasks.” The urgent need for companies to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs can be described as vigorously promoting the two core categories of AI application software — generative AI applications and the widespread application of AI agents. Among them, AI agents are most likely a major trend in AI applications before 2030. The emergence of AI agents means that artificial intelligence is beginning to evolve from an information support tool to a highly intelligent productivity tool.
As far as the bullish narrative logic of the AI application sector in the global stock market is concerned, Gemini 3, a major launch by cloud computing and search engine leader Google, instantly became popular around the world, and the strong performance and outlook recently announced by Cloudflare Inc., a cloud computing service company that focuses on the “Connectivity Cloud (Connectivity Cloud)” positioning, and Saifushi are signs of the active expansion and penetration of the latest AI applications on the enterprise/consumer side. “Verifying the viability of AI application stories + warming up the potential for accelerated growth trends after 2026 ahead of time” .