AI Will Kill Your Job or Make You a Billionaire
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Before we continue with earnings season, let’s step back for moment to take stock of ourselves. Everyone below the C-suite level is wondering what AI will do to our careers, other than smash it to smithereens and humiliate us with hallucinations and loot all our bank accounts. But there is an upside to this trade for some of us.
The Monitor, for one, wouldn’t exist without the advent of AI. Less parochially, the young founders of Rogo quit their Wall Street careers after wondering why young bankers should be messing around with Excel and slide shows at 2 a.m. Instead, they created an AI platform that does all the grunt work that junior bankers hate. It’s now worth $2 billion. Paul Shoukry, the boss at Raymond James Financial, says AI is helping advisers provide better advice for clients. Firms such as ANZ Bank are adding AI-conversant staffers and supervisors.
Okay, back to business in Europe, where the earnings news was mixed because of fallout from the Iran war and missed opportunities on trading. UBS Group did well as its traders outperformed — which puts their bank into the awkward spot of being too profitable while it tries to repel Swiss demands that it should hold more capital. Barclays traders struggled to keep up with American rivals, Deutsche Bank set aside more for bad loans and Japan’s Nomura Holdings fell short due to writedowns and a loss in Europe.
The concern over private markets isn’t over, but the contrarian push we noted last week gained momentum: Lazard Inc. is buying Campbell Lutyens, the largest independent private capital adviser. Blue Owl Capital, which has been ground zero for concern about a possible implosion in private credit, beat earnings estimates and piled up more assets under management.
Wait, you mean you don’t get a $38,000-per-child tuition subsidy from the bank where you work? Your peers at HBSC Holdings in Hong Kong do — but perhaps not much longer, because management is looking to standardize benefits globally and reduce costs. — Rick Green