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In a letter to shareholders last year, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon delivered an uncomfortable truth: AI \u201cmay reduce certain job categories or roles,\u201d predicting labor ramifications similar to the printing press, steam engine, electricity, and internet. The tech became the primary suspect as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanely issued several rounds of layoffs in 2025. But experts tell Fortune<\/em> that an AI-fueled finance job takeover is largely \u201csmoke and mirrors.\u201d At least, for now.\u00a0<\/p>\n People have rightfully raised eyebrows as banks trim their workforces and funnel billions into AI capabilities. Businesses have already deployed the software in their operations, using monikers for AI tools like \u201cSocrates,\u201d performing hours worth of junior-level analyst tasks in just seconds. Simultaneously, a report from Citigroup has found that 54% of financial jobs \u201chave a high potential for automation\u201d\u2014more than any other sector. But experts agree that AI-related layoffs have been insignificant, so far. This year\u2019s flow of banking headcount reductions are a result of pandemic-era overhiring and economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s a large company that might say, \u2018Well, we\u2019re not planning to hire as much because of AI,\u2019 or maybe \u2018We\u2019re letting people go because of AI,\u2019 I think there\u2019s a little bit of smoke and mirrors there,\u201d Robert Seamans, director of New York University Stern\u2019s Center for the Future of Management, tells Fortune.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAI is often a scapegoat for things, because it\u2019s easier to blame AI than it is to blame softening consumer demand, or uncertainty because of tariffs, or maybe poor HR strategy the past few years in terms of over hiring coming out of COVID,\u201d he continues, adding that \u201cthere\u2019s a lot less political risk than blaming the President\u2019s tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n While AI isn\u2019t capable of replacing bankers and consultants just yet, there could be trouble on the horizon for marketers and accountants, experts tell Fortune. <\/em>And elite business degrees are still worth their while; the vast majority of top MBA students are still locking in job offers soon after graduation. But prospects are dwindling, and banking headcounts could stagnate for years as AI drives a massive productivity boom.<\/p>\n Despite Wall Street making headlines for its relentless string of layoffs this year, headcounts across banking and finance have actually been relatively steady.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the general [headcount] trend in the banking industry over the last decade is stable to slightly declining. I don\u2019t see that changing anytime soon,\u201d Pim Hilbers, a managing director working with banking and talent at BCG, tells Fortune.<\/em> \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that everybody just stays in their job for life. I think we see a lot more mobility than we saw in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n So far, America\u2019s largest financial institutions haven\u2019t been making deep workforce cuts. Bank of America employed just four fewer workers at the end of the third quarter this year, compared to 2024. In that same time period, JPMorgan saw its headcount climb by 2,000 employees, and more than a third of the new staffers were brought onto corporate operations. Even Goldman Sachs, which implemented multiple rounds of layoffs this year, employed 48,300 this September\u2014around 1,800 staffers higher than the year before.\u00a0<\/p>\n Banks aren\u2019t ready to shed staffers just yet; experts tell Fortune <\/em>they\u2019re pulling back on headcount growth for as long as possible, leaning on AI efficiency gains until they\u2019re forced to add more humans to payroll. They predict this sluggish period of hiring could last for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMany of the banks I talked to will say, \u2018Look, I want to get the productivity so that I don\u2019t have to hire the next 100 people to put on another billion dollars of loans.\u2019 That\u2019s probably [what] the majority of thinking is: I just won\u2019t have to hire for 24 months, because I can get the productivity,\u201d Mike Abbott, industry group lead for Accenture\u2019s banking and capital markets, tells Fortune.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAs attrition flows through, you don\u2019t have to hire as many, but then eventually you hit a point where you\u2019re going to have to hire again.\u201d<\/p>\n MBA graduates are already feeling the hiring tremors in lieu of strong employment rates. Around 92% of the class of 2025 students from Columbia Business School received job offers, as did 86% of this year\u2019s NYU Stern MBA graduates. Last year, 93% of Wharton students reported receiving work opportunities, and at Duke, 85% nailed down an offer letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, professors at these top business schools caution that the statistics aren\u2019t a reflection of all MBA programs. Columbia and NYU Stern, for example, are nestled in the epicenter of U.S. finance: New York City. Additionally, these elite universities have more resources to skill students and boost their market value. Columbia Business School associate professor of business Daniel Keum tells Fortune<\/em> that Python is an \u201calmost required\u201d class for all MBA pupils at the university.\u00a0<\/p>\n And while MBA job offer rates remain high, take a peek under the hood, and the prospects aren\u2019t as plentiful. Job placement outcomes at every single one of America\u2019s \u201cmagnificent seven\u201d elite MBA programs\u2014including Northwestern, MIT, Stanford, and Harvard\u2014have declined since 2021, according to a Bloomberg <\/em>analysis. In 2021, only 4% of Harvard\u2019s MBA students received no job offer within three months of graduation; by 2024, that figure swelled to 15%. MIT saw a similar change, with its share of offer-less graduates climbing from 4.1% to 14.9% in a matter of three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n As AI has evolved to take on the grunt work\u2014preparing slideshow presentations, synthesizing client data, and balancing checkbooks\u2014it\u2019s been feared that all junior-level analysts would soon get the boot. But not all jobs in the financial industry rely on the same core skills, and experts tell Fortune <\/em>there are a few endangered roles in the era of AI disruption.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, the entry-level financial workers paying their dues and tediously crafting bespoke powerpoint presentations won\u2019t be the first ones out the door. Keum tells Fortune <\/em>that consulting and banking jobs \u201cresist automation quite robustly.\u201d He explains that their job tasks have little margin for error, as clients will not tolerate even the smallest mistake. Plus, every business deal is different; no two acquisitions are exactly alike, making it difficult to automate human critical thinking needed for the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBanking consulting [is] actually not doing too bad. Think about compliance issues where that 1% mistake is not tolerated. It cannot be accepted,\u201d Keum says. <\/em>\u201cThat\u2019s why a lot of analyst jobs at McKinsey and Bain are automated, but it\u2019s still extremely human intensive.\u201d<\/p>\n Simultaneously, Abbott predicts an industry-wide surge in tech hiring. Around 76% of banks expect to increase their tech headcount because of agentic AI, according to Accenture data shared with Fortune. <\/em>But human staffers in a few vulnerable roles might see the adverse effect of AI\u2019s gains. It\u2019s estimated that 73% of working time spent by U.S. banking employees has high potential to be impacted by generative AI, according to a 2024 Accenture report, improving the productivity of early AI-adopters by 22% to 30% over the next three years. Keum sees accounting and marketing roles being hit the hardest.<\/p>\n \u201cAccountants are not doing well,\u201d Keum told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cFor accounting, it was, \u2018Let\u2019s make sure that your numbers are correct based on physical receipts inputted. Now, AI can do that very well\u2026They\u2019re hiring a lot less. So only the extremely senior people survive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #killing #finance #banking #jobs #Wall #Streets #layoffs #hype #takeover<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a letter to shareholders la… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[5129,3356,266,5130,542,2585,924,2006,2293,3907,5131,5132,2805,522,2138,4204,2188,4182,5133,399,5136,833,1968,829,890,5134,5135,2300],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\nAI is stifling hiring in the banking industry\u2014and it could last for years<\/h2>\n
Top MBA students are still succeeding\u2014but job offers are declining<\/h2>\n
The finance roles that are still safe\u2014and the ones most at risk<\/h2>\n