Nowhere to hide for Goldman's elite as AI culls jobs

At its height back in 2000, the US cash equities trading desk at Goldman Sachs's New York headquarters employed over 600 traders who bought and sold stock on the orders of the investment bank's largest clients. Today there are just two left and automated trading programs have taken over the rest of the work, supported by 200 computer engineers explains Marty Chavez, the company's deputy CFO and former CIO at a Harvard symposium on automations impact on the financial services sector held last month. The experience of Goldman's New York traders is just one early example of the rise of automation, that's increasingly taking over Wall Street, that began with the rise in computerised trading, but which has accelerated over the past five years, moving into more areas of finance that were once dominated by humans. Now, Chavez, who will become Goldman's new CFO in April, says other areas of trading such as currencies and even investment banking are all moving in the same direction and it's bad news for the banks thousands of employees. According to Coalition, a UK firm that tracks the industry, nearly 45 percent of all trading is now done electronically, and not to be left out Wall Street's hastily rolling out new automation technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) to replace its high earners.