OpenAI is targeting the automation of one of the most demanding entry-level roles in finance: the investment banking analyst.
The AI tech giant has launched a secretive initiative called Project Mercury, enlisting over 100 former investment bankers from firms such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley to train its AI to perform the spreadsheet-heavy work that dominates the formative years of Wall Street professionals.
The ex-bankers are paid $150 per hour to create and format financial models in Excel, teaching OpenAI’s system to execute these tasks with precision. Every margin size, percentage format, and alignment rule is encoded as part of the training.
The goal, according to Bloomberg, is to build an AI that can flawlessly automate the “grunt work” analysts typically spend 100-hour weeks on.
Automated apprentices
This business transformation could have significant implications, especially for the finance sector. Automating tasks like financial modeling and pitchbook preparation could transform how banks structure their junior ranks, and some worry the technology may erode the traditional apprenticeship model that trains future dealmakers.
“Reading the documents, analyzing them — there’s a process that you need to learn,” Jeanne Branthover of DHR Global told Bloomberg, warning that skipping this stage could be “detrimental to young bankers.”
Without hands-on training, future financiers may miss the formative experience that teaches attention to detail and business judgment.
Redefining the analyst’s role
Still, many experts see the project as a natural evolution.
Economist Shawn DuBravac told Fortune that within a year, firms may automate 60% to 70% of analysts’ repetitive tasks, freeing them to focus on higher-level work such as complex modeling and client analysis.
If successful, Project Mercury could reshape how Wall Street trains talent and how financial firms deploy AI. Rather than eliminating jobs, AI could redefine them.
“I’m not convinced we get rid of entry-level workers anytime soon,” DuBravac said. “But the skill set we need those workers to have is different.”
Is OpenAI destined to be in the news every day? It also unveiled its AI-powered web browser, ChatGPT Atlas.