Vikram Pandit knows a thing or two about running a Wall Street titan, from his days at the helm of Citigroup. When he says that almost a third of banking jobs could soon be obsolete it's time to sit up and listen. For a hungry fintech company looking to sell AI and automtion tech to the big banks, the situation is more complicated than it sounds.
First, there's the cultural aspect. When I left university in the early 2000s, finance was the definition of the safe, sensible, well-paid job (I, of course, went the media route instead - the exact opposite). There is a huge workforce of MBAs, accountants and lawyers at these firms, and they are suddenly facing the real prospect of obsolescence, long before they are ready for retirement. That's not an easy environment for a fintech company to sell into.
The other perspective is technological: how does the CIO of one of these large organization transition their company towards new tech without wreaking havoc on the current operation? Many predict that bank workforces will stay the same size as tech opens new opportunities. But with tech moving so fast, how can CIO predict what skills will be needed?
Billions of dollars ride on these questions. For any aspiring fintech company looking to sell to Wall Street - and there are many - this skills perspective is vital to riding this technology wave.
Vikram Pandit, who ran Citigroup Inc. during the financial crisis, said developments in technology could see some 30 percent of banking jobs disappearing in the next five years. Artificial intelligence and robotics reduce the need for staff in roles such as back-office functions, Pandit, 60, said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in Singapore. He’s now chief executive officer of Orogen Group, an investment firm that he co-founded last year. “Everything that happens with artificial intelligence, robotics and natural language -- all of that is going to make processes easier,” said Pandit, who was Citigroup’s chief executive officer from 2007 to 2012. “It’s going to change the back office.”
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