AI enthusiasm has faded. Banks are rediscovering the value of critical thinking in the age of artificial intelligence
After years of the financial industry investing heavily in artificial intelligence and looking almost exclusively for tech specialists, more and more banks and investment companies are changing direction. Instead of graduates exclusively focused on technical fields, employers are starting to prioritize human skills again – especially critical thinking and analytical ability, writes the Financial Times.
Artificial intelligence used mainly for back-office work/PHOTO:Shutterstock
Journalist Gillian Tett cites the case of a New York financier who described the 2025 trainees as “the first genuine generation trained in the age of artificial intelligence”. Young people have grown up in an environment where AI tools have become a part of everyday life, and this initially made them extremely attractive to large financial institutions.
“We're looking for critical thinking, not just artificial intelligence”
“We're looking for critical thinking, not just artificial intelligence,” the financier told the British publication.
According to him, many of the ideas and projects presented by the interns turned out, after detailed checks, to be “alarmingly shallow”.
As a result, the company reduced the number of offers to graduates of STEM majors – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and began to pay more attention to candidates from humanities fields.
Although artificial intelligence is presented as an inevitable revolution for the financial sector, the concrete effects seem, for now, more limited than initial estimates.
A survey by Nvidia shows that 89% of CFOs believe AI is helping to increase revenue, and nearly three-quarters of respondents say the technology is “essential” to the future of business.
However, other research outlines a much more reserved picture. According to a study conducted by the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, 76% of large financial companies cannot clearly assess the real benefits of implementing artificial intelligence.
Only 40% of organizations surveyed reported increases in profits due to AI, while 43% say they have seen no significant change.
The study also shows that artificial intelligence is mainly used for back-office activities – administrative or operational processes that do not involve direct relationship with customers. Most financial institutions use external models, and OpenAI remains the leading technology provider.
Concerns are growing about the risks associated with artificial intelligence
In parallel, concerns about the risks associated with artificial intelligence are also growing. Regulators warn of cyber vulnerabilities, errors generated by AI models, over-reliance on cloud infrastructure and the risk of automated trading systems adopting similar behaviours, amplifying market volatility.
But Gillian Tett argues that the main problem is not the technology itself, but how people choose to use it.
“Smart machines do not automatically produce good or bad results. Human strategy remains decisive”concludes the journalist.
At the same time, specialists point out that the transformations generated by AI will not completely eliminate intellectual work, but will redefine it. Expert Oleksii Kostenko states that the development of artificial intelligence can become a stimulus for the development of human intelligence, not a threat.
According to World Economic Forum estimates, automation could eliminate about 92 million jobs globally, but create another 170 million. In the new economy, the decisive advantage will be those who are able to generate new ideas, hypotheses and creative solutions – skills that technology cannot yet fully reproduce.
