Bankers today spend the vast majority of their time focused on processes rather than thoughts. This will change soon with the help of artificial intelligence, according to Citi’s Jan Metzger.

The emergence of artificial intelligence has expectedly sparked a widespread debate about its future impact on the workforce. Naturally, jobs with routine and repetitive tasks are most at risk. Within the financial industry, this is especially applicable to many processes and functions that remain manual for the time being. 

«Most humans today, but in particular bankers, spend 80 percent of their time processing stuff and 20 percent of their time thinking. That’s going to inverse with AI,» said Jan Metzger, Citi’s APAC head of investment banking, during a panel at the 2023 Hong Kong FinTech Week.

«You’re going to spend 20 percent of your time telling the AI what to process and you’re going to spend 80 percent of your time thinking. So you have to hope that you have some smart thoughts because you’re going to have to compete much more with thought rather than processing.»

Emotional Intelligence

According to Metzger, technical knowledge is highly valued today amongst humans but in the future, AI will take over as the more effective holder of information. Instead, humans will focus on honing their skills in more human traits. 

«Doctors spend a huge amount of time acquiring technical knowledge. And then they’re told that empathy also matters. That will switch,» he explained, using the field of medicine as an example.  

«The AI will have all the knowledge and you as a doctor will be much more judged on whether you can give empathy. Emotional intelligence and empathy as core human traits will actually go up in importance.»

Future Predictions

At the end of the panel, the moderator also posed a question about predictions in a future where AI has become fully mainstream. «Driving will be outlawed in our lifetime. Everybody under 30 will live to 120 – the rest of us will die on schedule. General practitioners will cease to exist,» Metzger forecasted.

«Now, we are about to enter a 20-year period where you’re going to have huge changes in real technology. So if we think the last 20 years have been amazing, they are a mere taste of a huge acceleration that we are right at the start of today.»

The Hong Kong FinTech Week is being held from October 30 to November 5 with an estimated 30,000 attendees from over 90 countries.