A TOP executive at a major Wall Street bank is deep into his spiel on how artificial intelligence will make the firm smarter and leaner when he pauses to take a question: What does this mean for young people entering the business?

The silence grows.

“It’s, um,” he says, shifting tone and making clear he can’t speak publicly. That question is gnawing on him, he confides, because he has kids. “I would want them to pick their careers very carefully. I think AI is going to eliminate most jobs. That’s a private view. I think we’re just starting to feel that.”

Within the upper echelons of many financial firms, there’s a lot of soul searching as executives prepare to roll out a new generation of technology. Publicly, they’re upbeat, predicting machines will perform almost all repetitive tasks, freeing humans to focus on more valuable pursuits. Privately, many confide to peers, consultants and sometimes journalists that they’re worried about what will happen to their staffs - and what to tell them.

There’s also uncertainty. Maybe it’s all overblown, executives say, because the tech will be hard to implement and humans will find new roles. Or perhaps it’s the beginning of the end for legions of professionals in one of the world’s most lucrative fields. Can jobs held by office-dwelling millionaires disappear like those on factory floors?

The result, is that employees aren’t getting a clear message on what’s to come.

For a rosy scenario, look to McKinsey & Co. In July, the consulting firm published a report estimating machines are ready to assume roughly a third of the work now performed by banks’ rank and file. The authors framed it as positive: People will have more time to tend to clients, conduct research or brainstorm ideas. So far, it noted, firms at the forefront aren’t slashing jobs.

At JPMorgan Chase, one of the most tech-savvy banks, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon predicted in June that his workforce will more likely grow than shrink over the next 20 years. Technology may displace workers, he’s said, but it also creates opportunities.

Yet in interviews, about a dozen Wall Street executives and consultants responsible for deploying technologies - and steeped in their capabilities - were more bearish on humans. Machines will take over task after task, they said, and banks simply won’t need nearly as many people.

It’s time for senior managers to stop sugarcoating, said Simon Moss, who has been advising banks and investing firms as head of Grant Thornton Ltd’s fintech and innovation practice for the industry.

“Are there positions in financial services that are actually untouchable from technology? The simple answer is ‘No,’” Moss said. “It’s just a case of when.”

Early adopters like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. are experimenting, he said. They’re working with tech including machine-learning software that improves itself by searching data for patterns, and natural-language processing, which helps computers comprehend human speech. Once firms figure out how to deploy those, rivals may quickly follow suit. Humans will have less to do, and banks will whittle costs by shrinking headcount.

“Sitting with excess capacity is not a good business decision,’’ Moss said. Managers should start warning employees that they need to learn more skills to stay on.

That’s supported by history. Floor traders who once shouted orders in raucous marble-columned exchanges have seen their numbers dwindle since the 1990s, forcing many to seek new work.

Bloomberg/The Washington Post Service'

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2017