How AI is changing entry-level jobs and training in the investment industry
When it comes to training new entrants to the investment industry, how much AI is too much?
Across the financial industry, institutions are increasingly training their new joiners on the effective use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to harness the benefits of the technology.
JPMorgan, for example, has mandated GenAI training for every new employee since 2024, while Citi began upskilling most of its workforce in prompt writing in September 2025.
Although all employees stand to benefit from using GenAI, entry-level hires could see the greatest benefit, given its ability to narrow expertise gaps between novice and experienced professionals.
But investment professionals stress that AI training must not replace instruction on core concepts, products and services, regulatory compliance and other industry trends.
“You need to know how to ask the right questions to get information from AI, to know whether it’s hallucinating and to ensure it’s taking you where you want to go,” said financial consultant Oliver Arribas, CFA. “ChatGPT uses a lot of data, and if you don’t know how to use it properly, you can end up more lost.”
Arribas added that without this basic grounding, staff using GenAI can suffer “infoxication” – the confusion that can arise when you’re inundated with information.
This risk is exacerbated by the possibility that time allocated to training new hires on AI could take away from time available for other types of training.
Zap Cheng, CFA, Senior Business Technology Specialist at financial technology firm FIS, is aware of the challenge: “We’ve added internal training on AI, which means we need to sacrifice a little bit from other parts of our regular training on things like culture and project management.” He stressed that lessons are regularly repeated to ensure new hires do not miss out on anything crucial.
Maxim Tambling, Head of Global Talent Management at Vanguard, believes the efficiency gains from AI will free up more time for continuous learning and development.
“AI applications create greater capacity to focus on higher value areas,” said Tambling. “We intend to increase the amount of time our crew members spend enhancing their skillsets. The opportunity for people to have more time available to invest in their growth and development is happening because of AI.”
Much of that extra training time will be devoted to developing human skills, which have become critical differentiators as AI reduces the technical demands of investment roles.
“We’ve signed off on a plan for the next three years to really dial up the amount of time of in-person connection, practicing the soft skills that we want to develop,” said Tambling.
The use of GenAI-powered training will bolster the effort, with a recent experiment by the BCG Henderson Institute, the think-tank of Boston Consulting Group, suggesting that it can be more engaging than traditional interventions.
Risks of overreliance
The use of GenAI by entry-level employees is not automatically beneficial to their development, however. Some investment professionals worry that over-using the technology might even have an undesirable long-term impact – especially for those at an early stage of their career.
A recent study by researchers at MIT’s Media Lab found that when subjects used GenAI to help them write essays, they showed consistently lower brain engagement, with cognitive activity scaling down in proportion to their reliance on AI. GenAI users also struggled to quote accurately their own work compared to those who had written the essays without assistance.
Another recent study highlights that after using GenAI to accomplish tasks, workers can become less motivated to do other tasks without it.
In an employee development context, the concern is that overreliance on GenAI could lead to employees failing to gain the experience they need to use it effectively.
“You need that experience to ask good, thoughtful questions and understand the output you’re getting,” said Jim Pyke, CFA, Managing Director of TCB Advisors. “If you don’t have a good starting question, I think you’re at a disadvantage. It’s challenging when you’re just starting in an industry.”
Pyke shared a common concern around the reliance of novice investment professionals on GenAI tools, asking: “If you don’t really have to earn that experience the hard way, do you absorb it as well?”
CFA Institute recently highlighted the risk of overreliance on AI in its response to a paper on the use of AI in capital markets published by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), noting the importance of training in ensuring humans remain “in the loop” to monitor and override automated processes.
Filling the gaps
AI itself could help provide the answer to this problem, by enabling personalized training that could assess the knowledge and skills gaps of individual early-stage professionals, allowing firms to address them more effectively with content tailored to an employee’s specific learning style and career goals.
Tambling is tracking the development of HR information systems and learning management providers in this area and sees the potential to produce highly customized recommendations.
“We’ve spoken about mass customization for years,” said Tambling. “It is now real. You can actually do it because of AI.”
As artificial intelligence transforms how investment professionals analyze markets, build portfolios, and manage risk, CFA Institute is delivering cutting-edge research to support the profession.
Explore AI in Asset Management: Tools, Applications, and Frontiers from CFA Institute Research Foundation and CFA Institute Policy Center.
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