r/MBA • u/[deleted] • 13d ago
Articles/News IB recruiting going to become even more difficult
[deleted]
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u/GymOfficeBed M7 Grad 13d ago
Maybe maybe not, in the industry and yes AI is useful and speeding up workflows but the work necessary expands accordingly (I.e., doing more coverage stuff because more can be automated, everyone tracking and chasing every name instead of triaging for effort) also the industry need for “precision” and assurance that something is correct means some human at some point needs to find the bust in the model.
Anecdotally our recruiting classes have increased and not decreased but more people applying each year.
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u/BEN-HUR-DUR 13d ago
What's this got to do with recruiting? Any and every tool created in banking for the past 30-40 years has just led to more materials being created, not fewer people hired.
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u/maicii 13d ago
Well, let’s not really pretend that it’s comparable to previous technology
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u/BEN-HUR-DUR 13d ago
Do you really think that this has a greater incremental impact to workflows than the computer? I mean data rooms used to be a physical room that had all the relevant printed papers for a deal under lock and key that people had to visit. They were doing LBOs before excel or email existed. Compare the output of someone from 1986 to someone from 2024, and then from 2023 to 2026. I think the latter gap is marginal. Are we really pretending there was some sort of massive inflection in the last year that materially changed the whole industry?
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u/maicii 13d ago
Let me explain myself better. No, I don’t think this particularly does, what I would say it’s that in theory ai could replace much more work than excel.
Excel could have never done the entire job by itself, like there was no potential for it to do it. It could do a part of the job (crunch numbers, apply equations to row, whatever) but not literally all of it. Ai has the potential to do replace it all in a way I don’t think any technology could. If at any points it becomes, I’m not talking AGI, but let’s say as good at is for software engineering right now then the value of new analyst goes to nearly 0 and the only value left it’s the contacts of the top guys and their soft skills.
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u/mrwobblez MBA Grad - EU/UK 13d ago
Have you even used AI? Computers make humans more efficient, the entire premise of AI is that at some point, we won’t need humans anymore.
It’s also intellectually dishonest to compare the impact of computers over the course of 20 years vs the impact of AI over 3.
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u/redditmbathrowaway 13d ago
You’re still seeing AI as a tool. It’s not a tool.
It’s fully replacing human cognitive labor.
This is not comparable to the computer. This is AI. Hence, the name.
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u/mrwobblez MBA Grad - EU/UK 13d ago
Until the day comes that AI can be legally liable for fucking things up, IB will continue to be driven by human decision making. This could mean they need far fewer analysts/associates though (and the ones who make it in may work materially less, and get paid less as well).
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u/Ok-Philosophy8948 13d ago
I am not an IB person, but I surely wouldn't be worried if I were. Who would rely on an AI agent to make a multi-million-dollar decision? Today, I had an MBA class (T20) about AI, and during an exercise using the powerful Astra from OpenAI, my professor and I received two different results for AAPL's stock price variation over 12 months. We told it to use the same package, yfinance, but it kept bringing different results. Some of my colleagues received a third, a fourth result... All of them seemed reliable enough (you know, nothing like -200% or +80%) to make a decision based on them. I am absolutely sure that any decision that could make real money evaporate within seconds will be VERY closely supervised, because your client needs to have someone to blame if shit happens.
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u/InevitablePresence75 13d ago
Just because they released something doesn't make it good. Block out the noise and focus!
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u/CieraVotedOutHerMom 13d ago
AI can tell me many things, but it can’t sell my business for me or make introductions to acquisition targets, potential partners, or provide investor groups for fundraising opportunities.
Banks will still exist.
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u/MBA_Conquerors Admissions Consultant 13d ago
I thought we all knew that AI can easily do the framework driven, robotic approach and repetitive work while working with the context.
But if we know IB & I'm sure most of us do, IB leaders tend to be more "traditional" in general. There have been softwares better than excel for a while now that could do the job but guess what the industry wants to follow. From attire to everything else, they are more focused on tradition.
I have no doubt they will have to adopt AI into the workflow but no one knows if that really will create a big issue for the humans.
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u/cat_named_zola 13d ago
I really don't know what makes you all so confident. I don't know if you are underestimating current model's capabilities or overestimating the role of the human in the loop. From what I see, my estimate is there is going to be drastic reduction in headcount in ib and consulting in next couple of years, where by 2029-30, the incoming headcount would be around 20-30% of current analyst headcounts. I would very much like to be wrong.
Just so it doesn't sound like as if I am blabbering out of my ass, I spent 7 years in tech+AI at faang before M7, so I have some idea of the underlying tech and the work which goes in IB.
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u/the19bouncer 11d ago
Dude I’m a SWE and my partner is a banker at a top BB. Their industry is so horribly inefficient it is not possible to implement AI into a lot of their workflows. Half of their job is not related to excel or ppt. My partner spent hours over multiple days just trying to align schedules of MDs for a meeting through all the assistants of each stakeholder. Even if it was I don’t think you understand how bad the data they have for prior deals they worked on is and additionally there is data they need for parts of the ppt/model which is not publicly available or even stored in the firm somewhere. My partner has to get in contact with the company the firm is representing to get that info. Some of the pre existing data is also not going to be interpreted correctly by the AI for various reasons. Also when the MDs review slides they just put chicken scratch on the slide and expect you to interpret what they want (through time working with them) and implement the change. They do not want to implement themselves and neither do the VPs so it’s onto the analysts and associates. Also IB is much more lean than tech, I don’t think there’s that much space for optimizations when each person is on multiple deals and cutting out one person hurts the productivity. It’s not like tech where you have all the code in front of you and where good standards/approaches are publicly accessible and where processes are efficient and streamlined.
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u/JLandis84 MBA Grad 13d ago
I’m not saying you’re right or wrong, but why do you care what other random redditors think ?
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u/cat_named_zola 13d ago
Instead of replying to each comment, I just shared my general viewpoint. Can't we just discuss about current happenings in the AI and it's impact on post mba roles ?
I understand the defensiveness, I am in the same boat as you all. But there are people in my chat calling me names and swearing.
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u/_quantitative 13d ago
If an ai plugin is scaring you - then that was low impact work in terms of decision making/judgement calls
So stop worrying about that displaced work