LINKEDIN SURVEY: Wall Streeters are worried that robots are going to steal their jobs

pulse

July 17, 2017 7:19 PM

A recent survey conducted by LinkedIn, the networking site, found that 25% of Wall Streeters are worried their job could be jeopardized by automation.

An engineer makes an adjustment to the robot "The Incredible Bionic Man" at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington October 17, 2013.

The robots are coming for our jobs, and Wall Street is getting a little nervous.

A recent survey of 1000 financial professionals conducted by LinkedIn, the networking site, found that 25% of Wall Streeters are worried their job could be jeopardized by automation. Retail bankers are the most fearful with a third of respondents saying they view automation as a threat, according to a report highlighting the survey's results.

It stands to reason that some folks are nervous, as Wall Street firms look to automate their infrastructure to cut jobs.

As one survey respondent frankly put it, "automation will continue to reduce the number of jobs in finance."

Citigroup is staffing up for the automation revolution. The New York-based financial services giant has plastered online jobs boards advertising roles for a new automation center that will deploy new robotic technology throughout the bank.

JPMorgan, which is spending big on technology as it looks to cut costs and increase efficiency, last year launched a predictive recommendation engine to identify those clients which should issue or sell equity. And now, given the initial success of the engine, it's being rolled out to other areas.

And at an event in January, Goldman Sachs' deputy chief financial officer Marty Chavez said the bank was focused on automating investment banking tasks. He said that the bank has mapped out 146 distinct steps in the initial public offering process, and that many of these are "begging to be automated," according to MIT Technology Review.

Wealth-managers say that demand for human interaction in their space will protect them from automation,

by Morgan Stanley penned by a team of analysts led by Giulia Aurora Miotti supports this notion that humans are safe in wealth-management.

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