AI’s Rise and IB Analysts - Still Worth It for High Schoolers?
Hey everyone,
I’m a high schooler, ambitious and passionate about finance, aiming for BB/EB IB. But AI’s rapid progress has me rethinking. Three years ago, when the first models were created, they were inaccurate and useless - now AI can code, handle basic modeling, do very good research, and more, with the pace only accelerating. Banks are pouring billions into their own AI models and hiring thousands of software engineers to build them. For driven students like me, hitting analyst roles in 4-6 years, does IB still make sense? Analysts focus on research, financial modeling, and pitchbooks- repetitive “monkey” tasks that AI might automate first. Will there be a need for human analysts by then? I might sound like an average spring week guy asking dumb AI questions to seniors who don’t fully get it either, but I’m curious about your takes on AI’s impact and if IB’s worth the grind for today’s high schoolers.
Appreciate any thoughts from the community!
Just a headsup, a lot of the AI hype in the media and news sources are often overhyped vs. what companies are actually able to produce with AI / ML capabilities. I wouldn't be surprise if AI is a bubble and the use cases across all industries get dialed back in 5 years.
You can't really plan for things like this. I think there will always be juniors - because ultimately you're always going to need seniors who can meet with clients, drive new business and manage, and you can't create seniors if you don't have juniors.
However, going for finance is obviously riskier than it was before AI and versus something like healthcare or blue collar work which can't be automated as easily. Salaries may be a bit lower or there may be fewer jobs in it in the next 10 years.
It's really up to you. Many people in finance can't picture themselves doing anything else. But if you're torn between going into medicine vs. finance (for example), it may be wiser to go the medicine route.
Always will be need for juniors to drive AI / do grunt work.
I’m of opinion that AI will enhance workflow meaning the same # of analysts can do more. There may be some fluctuations in numbers but will always be need for hierarchy of workers in banking.
Thank you for the response! I follow your point about AI improving workflow, but if it significantly boosts efficiency, couldn’t that still mean fewer analysts overall? It seems like that might increase competition further, especially if banks start prioritizing a different skillset - like technical expertise over traditional finance skills. It's interesting how this evolves for juniors in 5-10 years.
AI my ass lol, just worry about breaking in then focus on AI after.
Appreciate the perspective! I get that breaking in is step one, and AI might be a later focus. But I’m worried it’d be shortsighted to grind for 6 years and pour hundreds of hours into finance skills, only to end up an unemployed grad when AI overtakes analyst tasks. Without pivoting to other skills, I’d be stuck with a useless toolkit. Any thoughts on whether AI might disrupt entry-level IB that much by then, or if sticking to finance alone remains a safe bet?
Don’t be an idiot - the entire financial services industry is not going to disappear in the next 6 years. Doing IB or PE is also more than being just an excel model monkey analyst, modeling and PPT generation is just a proxy for real tangible business skills: corporate finance and strategy, capital raising and allocation, valuation, negotiation, high horsepower work ethic, maniacal attention to detail, client relations etc.
There were investment banking analysts before and after Lotus was invented. There were investment banking analysts before and after excel was invented. There were and there will be investment banking analysts now that AI is here. Through each of these transitions, the number of analysts needed increased, not decreased for a reason.
Your technical friends drinking the AI bubble koolaid don’t know the first thing about how real businesses operate and so I would avoid getting a horoscope from anyone tangentially related to the VC ecosystem. They have historically been broken clocks that were right, twice a day.
Think about what you naturally excel at, not what you have to work hard to be good at (the venn diagram between those who are top 1% at coding at top 1% at finance/socializing/big picture thinking is extremely small). Then think about what you want to be doing when you’re 30 years old with a family depending on you. The entry level roles of being a SWE vs. an investment banker will lead you down two, equally lucrative pathways, so instead of optimizing for “where the market’s going” optimize for a set of skills you can be world-class at, then use those skills to navigate whichever way the market turns with ease.
A lot of people are dismissing your concerns but I think they're very valid as someone within the bank. The speed of adoption at my bank is quite a bit faster than I might've expected.
What can you do? I would read A LOT about AI adoption trajectories and how they'll affect the workforce. Read from a variety of sources and take in a variety of viewpoints then form your own. Based on that, prep accordingly?
At a very basic level (according to my current, developing opinion) you can still obviously pursue finance but I'd also dedicate significant capacity to learn how to use AI effectively, the same as you might do for modelling or excel or ppt etc. I mean really effectively. Not just "how to write a prompt" but how to automate, create workflows etc.
Using AI effectively could become the next "coding" or "computer skills" wave you saw when computers became commonplace in workplace. Being able to use this tool efficiently and better than your peers may end up paying real dividends in a future workplace (if such a thing exists by that time, some people don't think so).
My seniors in IB never opened excel or powerpoint and im not sure one even knew what excel or powerpoint was. Maybe in 5-10 years you will be an AI model monkey instead of a excel monkey. The MDs will always need monkeys to spend 80 hours a week doing some analysis the good idea fairy gave them.
This is probably the worst community to ask about tech advancements and workplace efficiency. Think about the process of "turning comments" -- it's about as inefficient a business model as you can possibly imagine. Bankers will be the LAST to know when their profession has been automated way.
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