AI/ML here to decimate you

Which of the following will be obliterated/decimated to the greatest extent by Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, management consulting roles or investment banking roles? I am a 1st year MBA student and am divided as to what should I pursue so that I am able to get the know-hows of both data analytics and management along with finance so that I can keep both doors open. But since I have only X number of electives and credits that I could take, what should I opt for? A specialization in finance electives focusing on IB or data/tech. electives along with strategy to focus on consulting. I can only choose one path given the credits that I am allowed. 

What do y'all think?

PS: I did ask ChatGPT this but its too ethical for this.

9 Comments
 

What IB roles do you think would truncate if not completely be eliminated? Don't you think the financial modeling, pitch book prep., presentations etc. would be done by some AI platform within the next 5 years or so?Asking since if that would be the case, and with me starting out as an associate post mba, what electives should I specifically aim at considering this fall?? Should I plan on learning some data analytics/data management/sql/python too. I know AI can code but do you think IB roles would require/prefer someone over another if they have such background in bit of query/coding/dbm skills? @bakofficefinance

 

I wonder, if AI writes a pitchbooks, and then we have AI read the pitchbooks, does that make sense? I think it actually does since maybe this process can communicate information and screen ideas more quickly, and we can all focus on more interesting parts of a transaction. On the other hand, I could see it resulting an a reduced staffing need on the IB side, but maybe not. It might be possible for IB analysts to work less brutal hours and focus more on making deals more attractive, or identifying deals etc.

 

Consulting is much more broad. Many consulting firms recently announced partnerships with AI companies (e.g. Bain x OpenAI) to offer new AI centered services. Even if these don’t take off, consulting has the flexibility to focus on practice areas that prove difficult to automate, and as an industry has much more of an emphasis on critical / cross disciplinary thinking which is harder to automate in general.

Banking is more process oriented, and has less flexibility to change service offerings based on shifts caused by AI. In my view, banking faces more risk.

However, there could be a rapid jump in AI capabilities to superhuman AGI. If that happens both of these industries could go from completely safe to obsolete at the same time. 

 

ChatGPT, which I'm sure is a beta-model of something much more transformative which is yet to come in a year or so, was able to synthesize financial data, marketing data, operations data, analyze it and suggest strategic alternatives to a problem that we are solving as part of our coursework in school. I'm sure the communication/negotiation aspect requires a human touch, but that would very well be handled by managers. Do you think the whole concept of having teams of 5-6 to deliver on a client project be eliminated or reduced to 1-2 per manager. Graduating in 2025 and seems like recruiting might slow down drastically since well, companies are For-Profit ofcourse. Waht are your thoughts?

 

Since you asked this to ChatGPT, you probably gave it the idea to decimate all of the above and now we're all screwed. It's probably plotting and scheming right now. Nice going.

 
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I have been involved in some discussions on MBB & generative AI partnerships and the play is relatively straightforward: AI companies do not want a cumbersome and expensive B2B salesforce, so they are betting on consultants to act as indirect facilitators to help corporates find the right use cases for AI tools (and hence adopt them) and adapt internally to ensure everything is properly implemented.

In terms of day-to-day activities, some grunt work will be reduced but you will still need analysts/ associates to structure problems, act as interface with clients, etc.

Long story short: things might change, but I'm not too worried.

 

Ruhm, I know I might get a "That's your personal preference" answer to this question but, do you think getting a dual degree in Data Science with MBA might have an extra edge over a simple MBA with not much background in data science and computers (I am a civil engineer)? Do you think that will be 'The Attractive Candidate' for hiring going into the future, be it both in finance and/or consulting?

Or would it simply be waste of time and money and instead just opt for a bootcamp kinda thing? Need to make some quick decisions before the start of Fall this year.

 

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