AI/robots will not take your job, at least not for now. A survey shows that two-thirds of financial services companies may initially see an increase in staff numbers after adopting artificial intelligence.
According to Zhitong Finance APP, a critical market research report indicates that about two-thirds of Wall Street financial services firms may initially see a significant increase in employee headcount within their actual operating models after adopting artificial intelligence applications across the entire organization. This has raised questions among investors as to whether this new technology will quickly lead to large-scale cost savings. The latest survey highlights that artificial intelligence or robotics are not yet poised to take over jobs on a large scale, at least not for now.
According to a survey by Bloomberg Intelligence targeting major Wall Street institutions, more than 70% of Wall Street respondents said they expect AI-driven software applications to result in higher operating costs over the next three years. However, most respondents still anticipate that enterprise productivity will improve at a faster pace. The survey, which targeted 151 senior employees in the U.S. high-end financial services industry, was officially released on Wednesday.
"The survey results reinforce the view that in its earliest stages within the financial services sector, AI is likely more about capability proliferation and infrastructure building rather than dramatic cost reductions," wrote Diksha Gera and Tomasz Noetzel, senior analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence, in a report published Wednesday. "As AI-driven automation scales up, we believe cost ratios could normalize post-2027 to 2028, significantly driving profit expansion through enhanced operational efficiency."
Wall Street financial services firms are seeking to leverage AI to accelerate precision and efficiency in customer service while aiming to significantly reduce operating costs. Major financial institutions such as ING Group, Allianz SE, and Goldman Sachs have begun linking this technology with workforce reductions. However, data from the Bloomberg Intelligence survey suggests that due to risk and compliance issues, the adoption rate of AI in the global financial sector is slower compared to sectors like retail and other broadly tech-driven industries.
However, in the long term, market observers generally believe that AI will have a significant and lasting impact on the financial industry. A study by UBS Group indicates that some of these impacts may start to gradually emerge as early as next year.
Jason Napier, an analyst at UBS, stated in a report on Tuesday: "By 2026, global equity markets may price in a significant trend – perhaps one where hard evidence remains scarce – positioning the world’s major commercial banks as some of the biggest beneficiaries of rapid technological advancement."
The Bloomberg Intelligence survey also revealed that executives across various industries indicated that the scale of 'disruptive metrics' brought about by AI is rated as 'high' or 'very high.' Large pharmaceutical companies expect AI to save at least 16% in drug development costs, while media leaders anticipate AI will reduce content creation costs and provide personalized premium content services. Consumer goods companies view AI assistants as shopping guides and delivery partners.
"It must be acknowledged that executives across industries are rushing to integrate AI into their core operations," said Anurag Rana, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. "From this point forward, AI is no longer a peripheral project."
Goldman Sachs, a Wall Street financial giant, officially launched an internal application tool driven by generative AI technology, known as the 'AI Assistant,' across the entire organization earlier this year. This initiative aims to significantly enhance the institution's overall productivity and comprehensively revolutionize operational efficiency. According to insider information, GS AI Assistant will assist Goldman Sachs’ internal staff with highly complex professional tasks, including 'aggregating complex documents, accurately drafting initial versions of research reports and ROI analyses, and executing advanced data analytics processes.'
The 'bullish narrative' around the AI application layer continues to gain momentum.
Previously, leading cloud computing and search engine provider Google, AI application leader Applovin focusing on 'AI + digital advertising', Palantir as the frontrunner in 'AI + data analytics', Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), and Salesforce, the U.S. cloud software giant specializing in customer relationship management (CRM) software, have all reported extremely robust financial results and future outlooks since the beginning of this year. This indicates that not only is the demand for AI computing power infrastructure, represented by NVIDIA's AI GPUs, exceptionally strong, but the demand for AI software applications—particularly enterprise-level AI application software capable of comprehensively enhancing B-end operational efficiency—is also flourishing, with rapid penetration across various industries.
From the current technological trajectory, the development direction of AI application software is concentrated on 'generative AI applications' (such as DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Sora, and Anthropic’s Claude, among other globally popular AI applications), as well as AI agents built upon generative AI, where AI functions evolve from simple question-and-answer chatbots to 'autonomous executors of various complex tasks.' Enterprises' urgent need to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs has greatly accelerated the widespread adoption of two core categories of AI application software: generative AI applications and AI agents. Among these, AI agents are highly likely to represent a major trend in AI applications before 2030. The emergence of AI agents marks the evolution of artificial intelligence from an information-assisting tool to a highly intelligent productivity tool.
In terms of the bullish narrative logic for the AI application sector in global equity markets, the rapid global popularity of Gemini3, heavily launched by Google, the cloud computing and search engine leader, along with the strong recent earnings and outlooks from Cloudflare Inc., a cloud service company positioned as a 'Connectivity Cloud,' and Salesforce, are the latest signals of AI applications' active expansion and penetration on both the enterprise and consumer ends. These developments 'validate the feasibility of the AI application narrative while preheating for potentially accelerated growth trends after 2026.'
