Good morning. Although some are fretting that AI will reduce the number of jobs available, future bankers at one of the world’s biggest names in finance are not worried.
Goldman Sachs interns are all-in when it comes to AI and view it as a game-changer. In a new article, my colleague Luisa Beltran does a deep dive into the firm’s 2024 intern survey. This year, Goldman welcomed about 2,600 students to its annual summer internship program. Beltran writes:
“Gen Z, which refers to people born between the late 1990s and early 2000s, is considered the first generation to grow up with AI as a dominant part of their lives—and who are now entering the professional workforce en masse.
Roughly all of the Goldman Sachs interns, or 93%, believe AI will serve to enhance their capabilities, while 88% think the technology will have a net positive impact on society, a 7% increase from 2023. But nearly all, or 99%, of respondents think AI should be ‘heavily’ or ‘somewhat’ regulated.”
Goldman Sachs began asking their interns about AI’s impact in 2023 and continued this year. Jacqueline Arthur, global head of human capital management and corporate and workplace solutions, summed up their response this way: “Gen Z is largely optimistic about the future and staying grounded in a post-pandemic future. Most don’t think AI will replace them.”
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon wrote in a LinkedIn post in August that he talked with the summer analysts about the firm’s growth strategy and his personal journey. He also offered career advice: “Be resilient and stay focused on your long-term goals. Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and if you build equity in your relationships with your colleagues, you’ll continue to grow in your career.” You can read more about Goldman’s survey here.
Advanced technology can play a key role in attracting young, high-potential talent to companies. But when ChatGPT, the OpenAI-owned generative AI chatbot, first exploded in popularity in late 2022 and early 2023, financial institutions like Goldman Sachs initially banned its use by employees due to privacy risks.
However, the Fortune 50 company understood the significance of the technology. This past summer, Goldman Sachs launched its first generative AI tool for code generation, with the goal of improving efficiency across its thousands of developers.
And regarding high-potential talent, Gen Zers who enter the workplace with AI acumen may have an upper hand, according to the 2024 Annual Work Trend Index by Microsoft and LinkedIn. They not only stand to secure prime positions but could also accelerate their ascent up the corporate ladder. Seventy-seven percent of leaders intend to delegate increased responsibilities to early-career hires with AI proficiencies, according to the report.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Ozan Pamir was named CFO of ChromaDex Corp. (Nasdaq: CDXC), a bioscience company that focuses on healthy aging, effective Oct. 21. Pamir will oversee all ChromaDex corporate finance matters and report directly to Rob Fried, CEO of ChromaDex and Founder of Tru Niagen. Before joining ChromaDex, Pamir most recently served as CFO of 180 Life Sciences, a Nasdaq-traded biotechnology company. He also worked with two early-stage biotech companies as CFO and board member.
David Rudow was named CFO of Jamf (Nasdaq: JAMF), a security and management platform for Apple devices, effective Oct. 28. He will succeed Jamf’s current CFO, Ian Goodkind, who is departing to pursue other opportunities, effective Nov. 28. Rudow joins Jamf from Cover Genius, a global embedded Insurtech company. Before that, he was the CFO at Unite Us as well as the CFO of nCino, a fintech SaaS company.
Big Deal
New research by consultancy and investment adviser Research Affiliates examines the effect of U.S. presidential elections on the stock market. A report by Rob Arnott, chair of Research Affiliates and Forrest Henslee, VP of research, is an analysis of daily stock market performance in the S&P 500 before and after all 24 U.S. presidential elections since 1928.
The political affiliation of the winner has less bearing on how the markets respond than how close and contentious the election was, according to the report.
In the run-up to a close election, stocks tend to fall, then surge in the final week of the campaign. Stocks continue their upswing, albeit with greater volatility, post-Election Day, the researchers found. “We believe this is due to fear of the outcome increasing (on both sides of the aisle) ahead of the election and then dissipating (on one side of the aisle),” the authors write.
Following an election, value stocks tend to rebound when a Republican wins the White House, while growth stocks tend to rebound when a Democrat takes office, according to the research. “Whichever side we're on in politics, the ‘wrong side’ winning has yet to result in immediate catastrophe for the markets,” the authors write.
But post-Election Day, you can expect more volatile markets—a constant theme in two dozen presidential races since 1928, according to the report. And Arnott and Henslee predict this election will be close.
Going deeper
“How Large Language Models Could Impact Jobs,” an article in Wharton's business journal, highlights a recent study that weighs the positive and negative impacts of LLMs based on the exposure of tasks to the technology and their potential to be transformed by AI.
LLMs meet the criteria to be general-purpose technologies, according to the study. “They’re pervasive. They improve over time, and then they necessitate and spawn complementary innovations, new techniques, new training, and new organizational designs [required to] unlock the benefits of the technology,” according to Daniel Rock, Wharton professor of operations, a co-author of the paper.
Overheard
“I leverage ‘creative destruction’ and believe this, along with broad communications throughout the company, is one of the main reasons we are successful at anticipating and capitalizing on trends and technologies before they emerge.”
—Jim Scapa, founder and CEO of Altair, writes in a Fortune opinion piece. In practicing “creative construction,” Scapa frequently reorganizes to “help individuals advance their skills and perspectives while bringing new ideas and energy into new roles within the company,” he writes.
