JPMorgan Chase warned that artificial intelligence will reduce the need for some traditional banking services, behind the CEO Jamie Dimon he said the company plans to hire more AI experts and a few bankers in key parts of the business.
Speaking in Shanghai during an interview with Bloomberg News, Dimon said AI is already changing hiring decisions within large financial firms. “There will be different types of jobs,” he said. “I think we’re going to hire more AI people and less bankers in certain fields, and it’s going to make them more productive.”
To many in the financial world, the message sounded hollow: A major Wall Street bank believes that technology can now replace parts of the work once handled by young banks moving up the industry ladder.
The answers are far reaching JPMorgan Chase itself. The bank is the largest lender in the United States by assets, and its hiring decisions often influence broader trends across Wall Street. When a financial giant of that scale makes a public display of mainstream banking, employees, graduates and investors pay close attention.
Dimon said it is possible that this change will happen gradually and not by laying off many people immediately. JPMorgan sees annual employee turnover of about 10 percent, which equates to about 25,000 to 30,000 employees every year. Instead of massive layoffs, the bank can reshape its workforce over time through downsizing, retraining and early retirement programs while increasing AI-related hiring.
Banks see AI as a way to process large amounts of work with fewer people. Research tasks, compliance checks, internal reporting and customer data analysis can now be handled much faster with automated systems than large and small teams. For managers trying to control costs while protecting profits in tough economic times, the financial incentive is huge.
Across Wall Street, workers are watching automation spread to a white-collar office job once considered relatively safe. Junior analysts and support staff are considered particularly exposed because much of their work involves reviewing documents, compiling reports and processing information – tasks in which AI systems are rapidly advancing.
Standard Chartered recently announced plans to cut about 7,000 jobs over four years as part of a technology overhaul designed to automate more internal jobs. Some big banks are investing billions in AI programs as competition increases across the world.
For young workers, time feels very bleak. Investment banking has long been marketed as one of the clearest paths to wealth, status and long-term career stability for ambitious students willing to put up with brutal hours and relentless pressure at the start of their careers. Now the entry-level job that once opened those doors is starting to change.
Banks are still aggressively hiring engineers, cybersecurity experts and AI developers, but those jobs require skills that are very different from the traditional finance career path many graduates are expected to follow.
Not all roles face the same level of risk. Big rainmakers who bring in big clients may always be hard to replace, while repetitive office work seems more vulnerable as AI systems get faster and cheaper.
Dimon also recently warned about that inflation, country instability and high energy prices it would create a very difficult economic situation around the world. If companies simultaneously cut back on hiring while using AI to reduce headcount, the pressure could spread beyond the trading floors of Wall Street.
For graduates preparing to enter finance, the industry waiting for them may already be shrinking in ways few expected a few years ago.
