The Battle for AI Brilliance: Wall Street Banks vs. Goldman Sachs Group!

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has been losing the battle to attract top AI talent to its ranks, as other banks such as Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. have seen a net inflow of 60 employees in the past year, according to data from Evident. Bank of America experienced the second-largest loss with 55 employees leaving, while Wells Fargo & Co. had the largest net increase with 130 new hires.

“It’s not just about hiring people, it’s about nurturing and keeping them,” Alexandra Mousavizadeh, CEO of Evident, said in an interview. “They have plenty of other places to go.”

While the departures represent a small portion of the thousands of bank AI workers, the data provides a window into just how fierce competition for AI talent has become. Employees in data, analytics and AI roles can be the highest paid in any company.

According to a report by recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, the median compensation, which includes annual stock grants, for workers in such positions in the United States was $901,000 last year, while workers with similar experience in Europe took home $676,000.

For its analysis, Evident looked at roles in AI development, model risk, information technology and software development. The data does not describe how banks hire AI experts from universities and consulting companies.

Take Goldman Sachs, which has lost 106 employees to rivals: That’s just a tiny fraction of the bank’s nearly 46,000 employees worldwide. The bank has certainly been hiring and investing as it seeks to attract AI talent. Earlier this year, for example, Bing Xiang joined Goldman from Amazon.com Inc. as the bank’s chief technology officer and head of artificial intelligence research.

Representatives of Goldman Sachs and other banks declined to comment.

The world’s biggest banks have slowly begun experimenting with more artificial intelligence in recent months, fueling the promise that it will help boost worker productivity and cut costs. At Citigroup, for example, the company plans to equip its 40,000 coders with the ability to experiment with different AI techniques by the end of the first quarter.

Citigroup has added 189 AI-focused employees in recent months, but it has also lost 196 to competitors during that time, Evident data showed.

“If you’re a bank and you don’t have an AI strategy, you don’t have a strategy,” Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “AI is here to stay.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has thousands of open AI-related roles, and CEO Jamie Dimon has said he believes the technology could help employers cut the work week to just 3.5 days. This year, the company maintained its top position in the Evident AI index, which ranks banks according to the maturity of artificial intelligence.

JPMorgan has shed just 224 AI-focused employees in recent months, but it added 325 over the same period, one of the largest net increases in talent among peers, Evident data found.

“We are proud to be recognized once again for our AI capabilities, insights and solutions,” Teresa Heitsenrether, JPMorgan’s chief data and analytics officer, said in a statement this month. “We are committed to continuing to invest in these capabilities.”