Let’s set the scene here and show you what is going on at some of the “big” banks from an AI perspective shall we…
Citi just hired Jerry Lavish who came from Big Consulting and for years has been a market SME on all things AI Governance, he’s written countless articles on risk & governance as it relates to AI, here is one example which will help you understand why Citi just brought him to be their Global Head of AI Risk, Approvals and Portfolio Oversight: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/regulation-aware-rag-financial-services-jerry-lavish-mxzse/.
Of course, JPMC have multiple very senior stakeholders and as the biggest bank, 60% of their workforce is actively using in-house AI tools across over 450 use cases, they have the industry’s largest annual tech budget at nearly $20 billion currently, a figure only likely to rise.
One notable individual here is Teresa Heitsenrether, she’s their Chief Data & Analytics Officer and holds AI policy discussions with global regulators, has spent nearly 40 years at the bank (so knows banking as well as most) and in her first year alone, she help roll out AI tools and training to nearly 100,000 at the firm.
In contrast, BofA as an org spent $4 billion last year on AI initiatives, this year one of their main focuses is getting from small proof-of-concept tasks to actual end-to-end process transformation, with governance and ROI explicitly named as one of four primary pillars driving AI project success for the Bank.
Over at Goldmans, they’ve built in-house capabilities to evaluate AI performance, bias and drift, with model risk management teams co-developing control frameworks alongside data scientists… and lastly, Capital One is arguably the most AI-native bank in America according to most reports, this is due to the decisions made 13 years ago when they declared a “comprehensive technology transformation from the bottom of the tech stack up, went 100% into the cloud, and closed their last data center in 2020”.
Is Capital One considered a poster child of talent then? Well, Truist hired Lo Li from there to be their Chief Divisional Technology, Data and Operations Officer for Consumer & Small Business, she now reports directly to their CIO and leads technology, data, and operations strategy for the entire consumer and small business franchise.
Some of the larger RBOs, notably Huntington & Fifth Third are now building their centralized AI capability across combined operations. Ally Bank joined the Responsible AI Institute as first US bank member, citing publicly that model risk review and AI controls are structural priorities for the organization not just an afterthought.
Talent is moving right now, we’ve seen Ali Abedini join Metropolitan Commercial Bank as its first Chief AI Officer, Ali left TD Bank, even though he was their Head of Advanced Analytics & AI, to have the chance to now run something bigger. Ali stated that he was “excited to work directly with Mark DeFazio, a founder-CEO who brings a rare combination of entrepreneurial mindset and institutional leadership.”
Freddy Lecue joined Wells Fargo as Head of Frontier AI Models and Methodology, they poached him directly from JPMorgan where he was an AI Research Director, while Citi snagged Shobhit Varshney from IBM (he was their Head of Data and AI), to be their Global Head of AI.
Short summary:
Big banks are already way down this path, they’ve spent years (if not decades) grooming people for this moment internally, and when they see a gap they hire from their competitors or a tech firm. These new hires, well, they’ll bring people with them and they will also attract fresh talent from elsewhere too. The investment in AI runs deep in to the Billions annually, and what will come of it all? Well, let’s just say only the strong survive.
Stats that should concern you:
– JPMorgan, Capital One & Wells Fargo alone employ 17.5% of banking’s entire AI talent pool!
– This year 76% of banks expect to increase their tech headcount because of agentic AI.
– AI talent demand globally exceeds supply by more than 3 – 1, more specifically, there are over 1.6 million open positions and only 518,000 qualified candidates available. According to reports, “73% of financial services leaders cite AI talent scarcity as a critical barrier”.. wonder why..
Where can we help?
Our existing network would comfortably support roles like AI Governance Manager, (AI focussed) Model Risk Manager or an AI Compliance Officer – we have placed people in to these roles for a while and already know the people who use AI daily, to be put in to full headhunting mode we’ll headhunt talent from the “big banks”. On the other hand, if you need AI Program or Product Managers or a Solutions Architect, we can look to the “big tech or consulting” firms too.
You’d imagine that the holy grail of an AI Governance resume today could be who the person who spent 3-5 years at a Goldmans or JPMC in Model Risk and then moved to a tech or consulting firm, working in their AI practice and these do people exist, but are they going to be applying to your role on LinkedIn or Indeed without knowing the real story as to why you’re the firm they need to listen to? (The answer is probably not).
Why Wayoh?
Well, I have operated and recruited in to the US Financial Services industry for over a decade, so know the players and am connected to most people at the top end of banking, technology & consulting firms who work in this space. If I don’t know the person you want to talk with, I’ll likely be able to get an intro from a friend or former colleague of theirs. I have worked with IBs and Big Banks, FBOs, RBOs and with a lot of Fintech firms too, so know how to communicate and truly vet these individuals, to ensure that we know why they’re looking and what they are going to be driven by in their next role.
Our team supports Risk, Compliance, Legal, Operations and Technology hires, so we have a deep & wide talent pool.
Lastly, we want to continue to serve Financial Services partners for the next decade and beyond. I run Wayoh from the front and will be doing so for a long time, we know the challenges you’ll face to get ahead of this issue and want to work with firms who want a partner who’s here to not only represent you in the market, but to be out there fighting to get you the best talent available!
Get in touch today. We Are Your Other Hand.
Matt Lang - Founder
If you want to help contribute to a blog article with the Wayoh team, please contact me directly.
