I just automated my job today.
Last week I was at a townhall where they were discussing how automation is coming for operations roles and specifically maker roles and ways to do it. Being in KYC ops I knew the writing was on the wall the day I joined the company back in 2024 but the moment of reckoning has arrived. My work involves due diligence on client docs and a lot of internal systems maintenance. OCR is a thing which sources info from client docs and it's embedded in all great models. I just made really specific step by step prompts for fetching that data. And voila I had the data which would've taken me a good 30-45 minutes in what 3-5 minutes. There are multiple people employed there just to jot down that data and maintain it internally. Effectively 60 percent of my work is gone, all that's remaining is the analytical part which also can be done by AI. And any further steps would lead to more automation now. I just figured out a way to kill my job and I don't know how I feel about that. Once this thing turns agentic my role is gone. I feel if I write down everything that I do in a prompt I can make that agent myself 💀 And that's wild. I'm on my notice period but had to do it before I leave for good.
What do we do
Yeah i see a lot of naysayers around here on AI and its impact on financial services and white collar jobs in general but they don't know what's coming lol.
Every year AI capabilities get better and better. Not to mention more and more industry/department specific AI tools will be created every single year with good funding and good expertise all with the sole goal of replacing humans.
Every company wants to cut costs and improve margins. Eventually the supply to create effective AI tools will catch up with the demand especially since there's big money at stake
When people say AI is not taking finance jobs any time soon they weren’t talking about the back office of banks lmao.
just give it a few years. AI capabilities double every 7 months not to mention PE and VC firms are pumping tens or hundreds of billions of dollars into AI companies and startups.
Hear you there. At a BB rn and our CEO openly said it’s time to automate KYC and lower headcount. Have talked with a lot of tech investors lately who all say they’re seeing the biggest benefit from efficiency gains because the jury is still out on how much workflow can be automated. There’s 100% still a place for humans, but that place is evolving rapidly. You must evolve rapidly as well. A quote I heard was “when the calculator was made, all the people who were rlly good at math clearly lost their jobs in a matter of months.” Obv that’s sarcastic, but highlights that Ai will be an incredibly useful tool but cannot solely be relied upon to do good work. Anecdotally, my first MD was the insanely technical type rather than the client relationship type. He used to do DCFs on paper back in the day … every time I would talk about “the model” and what it said, he would basically yell at me and say “no, think. Do it yourself and tell me if that makes sense.” While tough to handle at times, it truly highlighted how good people (those less likely to lose their jobs to Ai) are ones who know what the heck they’re talking about. Ai can do a bunch of manual work, but there’s a limit to how well it can replace ppl (for now at least lol).
Here’s what I’d do:
(1) Mentally take a step back to ask yourself if this is what you want to do long term. If so, great - glad you’re doing something you like … but, you HAVE to figure out a way to make yourself as close to irreplaceable as possible. That means doing high quality work, taking on expanding responsibilities, and demonstrating that Ai helps you expand capacity and efficiency rather than make you replaceable. Not sure how to apply that to KYC, but I bet there’s a way.
(2) if this is not your long term goal, take the efficiency gains, and the time it gives you back to upskill in areas which are less disrupt able by Ai. Use those new skills to start seeking other employment / a career pivot.
Or (3) mourn the loss of society as we know it and accept that every formerly-high-paid, white collar professional will be on food stamps and universal basic income. Or go start a search fund and rollup plumbing companies… idk, just something which Ai can’t replace.
Hope this helps!
At some point last year I knew I couldn't be doing ops for too long so I waited just enough to ensure I don't get pigeonholed into that role, even though I worked at a BB. While I am grateful for the job being my first step into finance, it wasn't as much finance tbh. I have a pivot plan in place and I'm intentionally transitioning to a core finance role because that's where my interests are.
I don't think humans will be replaced as such by AI, the problem is the skillsets have not been defined yet considering automation. There's no degree or formal education that points the way and pace of change is super fast. As I see it the industry is figuring stuff out on their own and defining the path forward as they go. In my experience it's been discussions with colleagues and townhalls which kinda made me think about how I go about it.
Optimistically though this can fivefold an already huge organization's profits if the people there use it well enough. While it does reduce work exponentially for now it will lead to something new that I'm sure of. Hoping for the best.
Great achievement! We’ve seen a similar impact in Accounts Payable, where automating invoice validation, PO matching, and approval workflows significantly reduces manual effort and errors. The real value isn't just saving time—it's allowing finance teams to focus on exceptions, compliance, and strategic work instead of repetitive tasks.
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