Goldman Sachs is looking to generative AI for developer assistance, including coding purposes, and for lead generation among client-facing operations, Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman said during Goldman Sachs 2023 U.S. Financial Services Conference on Tuesday. 

“We have dedicated professionals that are working on a suite of different proposed opportunities and looking at what the potential value unlock [of gen AI] might be,” Coleman said, adding that the tech presents efficiencies for coders to streamline development across several processes inside the firm.

On the client-facing front, gen AI allows the $2.6 trillion FI’s investor team to approach lead sourcing and idea generation in a new way, Coleman said. Gen AI puts investor information “at the fingertips of those outwardly facing client professionals that can use the information for investment processes,” he added. 

Goldman is ranked seventh globally for its AI efforts, according to a Nov. 15 report by AI solutions company Evident. The $3.7 trillion JPMorgan Chase leads the list, followed by $467 billion Capital One. 

The FI currently uses AI for document processing, option pricing models and other “simple cost efficiencies,” Coleman said. “We spent a lot of time over the last several years in machine learning [and] AI; it has applicability across the firm.” 

Including its investment in AI-driven data intelligence platform Bud Financial, Goldman Sachs made 28 AI-specific venture investments in the past year an was a leader in AI-specific ventures, beating out Citigroup, JPMorgan and Capital one, according to the Evident report.  

Impact on workforce

In the short term, the bank will use gen AI to build intimacy with clients by providing them personalized services, George Lee, co-head of the office of applied innovation at Goldman Sachs said last week at the Evident Symposium conference.  

“I think that’s the most powerful thing [personal relationships with clients] we had in the past, but it’s obviously too expensive to have hundreds of thousands of employees, so we rationalize them away,” Lee said.  

In the third quarter, Goldman’s headcount reduced by 7% year over year to 45,900 while its technology spend increased by 2% YoY $468 million. 

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