Goldman Sachs is set to bring on approximately 2,400 to 2,500 interns this year, with a similar number of permanent new hires joining in July. CEO David Solomon reiterated this figure during a recent appearance on Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast, addressing concerns that artificial intelligence could decimate entry-level positions at investment banks. While Solomon conceded that hiring will "contract a little" over the next three years, he emphasized that the reduction would be far from drastic. For a bank that recruited over 3,000 new employees in 2021, the message is one of restraint rather than alarm. Solomon, who penned a late-May op-ed in The New York Times dismissing the jobs apocalypse as overblown, remains steadfast in his stance.
Shifting Hiring Mix
The change in hiring composition is real, though less dramatic than headlines suggest. Over the past decade, Goldman Sachs has increasingly focused on engineering talent, a trend Solomon expects to intensify as AI reshapes the industry. This year's intake is roughly in line with pre-COVID levels, indicating a return to normalcy after the pandemic-era hiring surge.
Contrasting Views on AI and Jobs
Solomon's perspective places him at odds with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has warned of an entry-level wipe-out, and aligns more closely with Apollo chief economist Torsten Sløk, who sees no concrete evidence of AI-driven layoffs currently. Uber COO Andrew Macdonald has separately argued that the costs of automating tasks with AI are becoming harder to justify. Solomon relies on analysis from Goldman's own chief economist, Jan Hatzius, who has noted short-term disruptions but does not foresee a structurally higher long-term unemployment rate. "It's no different this time," Solomon argued in January, framing the current disruption as another iteration of a cycle that has persisted for decades.
OneGS 3.0: Goldman's AI Initiative
Internally, Goldman's AI push is known as OneGS 3.0. An internal memo from October signaled a hiring slowdown and potential cuts, with the bank's usual 3% to 5% annual performance-based reductions accelerated to the second quarter. The program aims to revamp six core processes, including client onboarding, know-your-customer (KYC) checks, lending, regulatory reporting, and vendor management. Despite these changes, the bank expects to end the year with a net increase in headcount, framing the AI effort as an expansion of capacity rather than a covert reduction in staff.
The Training Challenge
The more complex issue, according to Solomon, is not who gets hired this year but how to train analysts who have never performed manual calculations. He recalled his early career when he lacked minute-by-minute price feeds and had to compare stocks by pulling figures from The Wall Street Journal, plotting them on graph paper, and running the math by hand. While slow, this process built instincts. Now, with instant answers available, Solomon questioned whether anything is truly learned along the way. His advice to junior staff in the AI era was almost retro: pick up the phone. A call, he said, is ten times more valuable than a text or email.
