How is AI Transforming Jobs in the Financial Sector?

According to new research from Deutsche Bank’s research institute, AI tools could be the primary source of advice for nearly 80% of retail investors, which could significantly change the role of human financial advisors. 

The report goes on to say that AI is also radically shifting data-driven industries like software, with 85% of developers already using AI coding assistants – seeing productivity gains of up to 60%.

While jobs and responsibilities that involve repetitive tasks are likely to play a smaller role as AI capabilities develop, the report predicts jobs that involve human empathy and skills are unlikely to be digitised. 

AI integration at Deutsche Bank

Discussing the potential of AI to transform business in an interview with Reuters, Stefan Hoops, CEO of Deutsche Bank’s money manager DWS said there was “no playbook” for how it can change the way employees work. 

He shared that businesses are already seeing significant wealth creation as a result of AI efficiency gains, saying: “There’s no real history for something like that”.

To encourage that growth within the business, it has developed a strategy to focus on transforming its workforce – going from traditional banking roles to a more technology-driven, AI-fluent organisation. 

By hiring more people in technical roles and embedding foundational AI training in the business to encourage staff to AI for tasks that can easily be automated, it is looking to increase its workplace productivity by 10%-20%. 

As AI handles these repetitive tasks, the bank is upskilling and deploying employees into higher value, client facing or strategic work. 

CEO predictions for the AI workforce

This research comes as business leaders are predicting AI will significantly change the way companies operate. 

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, shared in an interview with the Financial Times that he believes white collar roles will be automated in as little as 18 months due to advancements in AI, saying that he thinks: “we're going to have a human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks.”

He goes on to say: “White-collar work, where you're sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person – most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”

Findings from the report by Deutsche Bank do suggest that there will be “sectors of resilience” protected from AI that require human empathy and insight. 

Other research supports these findings, with a study from Deloitte finding that organisations who nurture the development of human skills can adapt more effectively to future work trends. 

These skills include curiosity, emotional intelligence, divergent thinking, informed agility, resilience and effective collaboration. 

Human skills such as these will grow in importance as AI develops, says the report, with 63% of respondents believing that human skills are likely to increase in importance over the next two years

As the half life of technical skills will continue to decline, human employees will need to prioritise agility to adapt to new business landscapes.