ArgumentCareer lessonArtificial intelligenceCareersBanking
Which parts of the analyst job compress, and which get more valuable
David Solomon · Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on AI, Debt and America’s Future
The idea
In an interview with Prof G Markets, Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon talks about artificial intelligence and human capital, and whether headcount falls. The useful content for a candidate is the separation he draws: parts of the junior role that are about producing documents and first drafts compress, and the parts that are about judgement, relationships and knowing what the client needs get more valuable, because the tools make the first cheap and the second scarce. It is a chief executive's view of his own firm and should be read as such, but it is the question every candidate will be asked, answered by the person deciding the headcount.
Prepare for the parts of the job the tools make scarce, judgement and client sense, rather than the parts they make cheap.
When it works
The interview question about what AI changes for an analyst, and planning what to get good at before you start.
When it may fail
A chief executive has reasons to describe the change as reallocation rather than reduction. The direction is plausible; the headcount outcome is his forecast, not a fact.
How to use it
List the tasks of a first-year analyst, mark the ones a tool now does to a first-draft standard, and build your preparation around the rest: checking, judgement, and explaining a number to someone who did not build it.
Where it came from
Video Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on AI, Debt and America’s Future · Prof G Markets
What the source says. Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon on AI and human capital, and whether headcount falls.
Connected ideas
Says something similar
Coding is a task and innovation is the purpose: automate the task, keep the jobName the purpose of a job separately from its tasks; automation changes the tasks and leaves the purpose to be done better or worse.
Says something similar
A skill is only worth what the market structure around it allowsSeparate what you can do from the structure that makes it valuable, and watch the structure.
Takes it further
What banks actually deploy is narrower and more governed than the consumer conversationInstitutional AI is scoped, governed and data-limited; expect to work inside those limits and to be able to explain them.
Puts it to work
A prompt is a brief: task, role, background and output formatWrite to a model as you would brief a capable junior: the task, their role, the context they lack, and what the output should look like.
Concepts
Put it to work on L3VLUP
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