Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., says the Wall Street giant will probably hire fewer traditional bankers and more AI professionals as the technology gains traction.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television during the bank’s China Summit in Shanghai, Dimon stated,
“I believe it will reduce our jobs down the road.”
“I think we will be hiring more AI people and fewer bankers in certain categories, and it will make them more productive. There will be all different types of jobs.”
Dimon’s remarks highlight a larger industry shift toward automation that is changing the nature of the global banking workforce.
Lenders are rushing to increase productivity and simplify processes as AI permeates Wall Street, all the while managing the possible political and social fallout from layoffs.
In contrast to several of his banking colleagues, Dimon adopted a measured approach, contending that natural turnover, as opposed to widespread layoffs, can effectively handle the AI-driven transformation.
According to Dimon, AI will generate new roles, especially in client-facing areas, even as it transforms every level of employment, expanding beyond back-office duties into higher-value functions.
Dimon stated that JPMorgan has the flexibility to retrain employees, redeploy people, or provide early retirement packages because its yearly attrition rate is approximately 10%, or 25,000 to 30,000 departures annually.
Bill Winters, the CEO of Standard Chartered Plc, provoked controversy earlier this week when he claimed that the developing markets lender is replacing “lower-value human capital” with technology in order to eliminate 8,000 support positions over the course of the next four years.
This came after John Waldron, president of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., recently referred to conventional back-office activities as a “human assembly line” that was ready for automation.
Georges Elhedery, the CEO of HSBC Holdings Plc, also commented this week, cautioning that AI may “destroy” certain jobs while generating others and advising staff members to embrace rather than oppose the technology change.
