Posted on 03/06/2026 8:40:39 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Morgan Stanley is laying off about 2,500 employees, despite reporting record revenue last year.
The banking giant is planning to cut about 3 per cent of its global workforce across its investment banking and trading, wealth management and investment management divisions. The lay-offs were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Many of the job cuts were said to have taken place on Wednesday, and were tied to both shifting business and location priorities and individual performance.
The lay-offs come after Morgan Stanley reported record annual revenue last year of $70.65 billion, up 14 per cent on the previous year, following a strong performance in its investment banking, trading and wealth management units. Annual net income rose 26 per cent to $16.9 billion.
The cuts come amid fears of white-collar job-losses as companies invest more in artificial intelligence tools. Morgan Stanley was contacted for comment. It is understood that the bank has not cited AI to employees as a rationale for the job cuts, and financial advisers in the wealth management division have not been impacted by the cuts.
Ted Pick, chief executive of Morgan Stanley, predicted in 2024 that AI could save the bank’s financial advisers between 10 and 15 hours a week.
“This is potentially really game-changing,” Pick told investors, adding that the bank’s tool to transcribe and enter notes from client meetings into a database could boost advisers’ productivity.
He also said the technology could help advisers fine-tune topics to discuss with wealthy clients and tailor investment products to their needs.
In October, Amazon announced it would be cutting corporate headcount by 14,000, citing AI. In a blog post confirming redundancies, Beth Galetti, senior vice-president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said generative AI “is the most transformative technology” the world has seen since the internet.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetimes.com ...
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GROC 4 taking the jobs?
I’m sure their wealthy clients will appreciate the financial advice of a silicon chip in Pittsburg.
Hope neither of those things change.
>> I’m sure their wealthy clients will appreciate the financial advice of a silicon chip in Pittsburg.
Why in the world would an infallible super-intelligent transhuman brain SHARE its solid gold advice instead of acting on it for its own account?
And why would a wealthy individual retain Morgan Stanley et al to manage his/her/its portfolio instead of using the AI tools their/themselves?
“I’m sure their wealthy clients will appreciate the financial advice of a silicon chip in Pittsburg.”
Most likely they won’t even know they’re being duped by the silicon chip on the other end.
As a known Chinese philosopher might say...Sum Ting Wong. Let’s see, they made more money & they are laying off, so they had more employees than they needed to start with, or they decided to take the profits & split it fewer ways. I don’t know, but I’m sure Sum Wun does.
AI could save the bank’s financial advisers between 10 and 15 hours a week.
AI = Sons of HAL
Sorry Dave you no longer work here.
More employees does not equal better business. The purpose of a business is to make profit. The purpose of a business is not to provide good service and products, create jobs or be socially responsible. If it can make MORE money by doing those things then it will, if it can make MORE money by NOT doing those things, it will.
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