Why AI is Going to Enhance – Not Destroy – The Capital Markets Workforce
By CPQi
The headlines are everywhere: “Workers rendered obsolete by AI technology,” “Millions of skilled traders and banking professionals will be replaced by artificial intelligence,” “Capital markets will never be the same.” A great wave of misinformation has swept the capital markets world over the last few years, and we’re here to set the record straight. Which jobs will be replaced, and why? Will any jobs be created? Is artificial intelligence going to stifle or encourage creativity and problem-solving in banking processes? There’s a range of important considerations to bring into question when analysing the potential impact artificial intelligence will have on the future capital markets workforce.
We believe that AI won’t be a wholesale replacement of people – it will enable people to work more like humans and less like robots. By performing the more mundane tasks involved in a role, for example calendar management, AI provides employees with more time and energy, facilitating an industrious profitable workforce.
Further, a change in work form doesn’t mean a decrease in the number of workers. People will need to manage, control and work with the artificial intelligence technology to keep it evolving. An article in the Silicon Republic highlighted that this “is the nature of progress; I’m sure that the equine industry was outraged at the development of the automobile,” said Lawless. He continues, “AI will help to create more jobs than it replaces.” Just like the rise of computers led to people working in technology, from developing companies that were only made possible with the new infrastructure to coding to hardware to regulating the Internet as a government, a great range of jobs and industries were created as a result of the invention of the computer and so the same will be true of the rise in artificial intelligence. Government bodies will need to work on regulations, people will be needed to enhance and develop AI and new industries and jobs will be created as a result of the new, more advanced, form of innovation.
Analysts predicting a rise in capital market unemployment perhaps haven’t included potential increases in new industries that will come about as a result of AI. The “four hundred thousand capital markets jobs [that] could disappear over the next decade as advances in artificial intelligence and technology decimate the workforce” (Finextra) may very well be made up for by the increase in jobs relating to AI. We used to spend all our time farming, and before that hunting and gathering, now we have the freedom and space to create mobiles and space shuttles. Developments in technology always result in some degree of change, but that change is often good in the long run, creating more emotional and financial space for creativity and innovation.
The Finextra article goes on to state that “the demand for tech experts is currently outstripping the supply” (Finextra). If true, then AI will help manage the current deficit by automating roles that don’t require a person’s involvement, giving banks and financial businesses more time and space to look for talented employees that will move the business forward rather than desperately fighting over the few relevant candidates.
At this exact moment there is already a huge industry for candidates who specialise in AI. Canada’s economy and scientific community have already benefited from the increased interest in artificial intelligence developments and the benefits of AI in the workplace. That increase in employment possibilities will continue to spread across the world over the next few decades, creating opportunity as it moves. For example, CPQi has already discovered and cultivated several key people with decades of academic and workplace experience in Canada, where our headquarters are based, who are now creating and enhancing artificial technology for banks. We have hired specialists and created new jobs that fit as the technology has evolved. We plan to create further employment as our software develops, which it is currently doing at an impressive rate.
Artificial intelligence is definitely a big shift, but it is a shift in the right direction. It is a shift towards greater creativity, innovation and engagement in capital markets. It is a shift towards higher predictive powers and greater protection from risk. Our artificial intelligence engines are capable of predicting fluctuations in trading, and tightening potential risks. By pointing decision makers in the right direction with strong predictions, CPQi enables capital markets professionals to enjoy the freedom to innovate and create. Our clients feel more secure and are able to think beyond the next quarter, to a brighter, stronger future.
