Goldman Sachs has taken a pioneering step by integrating an autonomous artificial intelligence software engineer into its technology team, marking a milestone in AI adoption within the financial industry.
The investment bank is currently trialling Devin, an AI-driven software developer created by the startup Cognition, which is expected to work alongside Goldman’s 12,000 human programmers. Marco Argenti, chief technology officer at Goldman Sachs, revealed in a recent interview that Devin represents a new kind of employee capable of independently handling complex coding assignments.
Founded in late 2023 by a group of expert engineers, Cognition attracted attention last year by introducing Devin as the world’s first AI software engineer. Demonstrations have shown the system managing full-stack development projects with minimal human intervention, completing intricate, multi-stage tasks autonomously.
Argenti explained that the bank plans to deploy hundreds of these AI engineers initially, with the possibility of expanding to thousands depending on the use cases.
“We’re going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee who’s going to start doing stuff on the behalf of our developers,” he said.
Just last year, major institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley began introducing AI-powered cognitive assistants based on OpenAI models, aiming to familiarise employees with emerging tools.
However, Devin’s capabilities extend well beyond simple assistance. As an agentic AI, it can autonomously execute sophisticated, multi-step operations, including building entire applications—a substantial advancement compared to AI tools that merely support tasks like summarising documents or drafting emails.
In the wider technology sector, companies like Microsoft and Alphabet report that AI now contributes to roughly 30% of coding efforts on certain projects. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently stated that AI handles up to half of the work within his company, highlighting the increasing reliance on intelligent automation.
At Goldman Sachs, Argenti believes that Devin’s introduction could increase developer productivity by three to four times compared with previous AI tools. The AI will focus on repetitive and mundane tasks, such as updating legacy codebases to modern programming languages, allowing human engineers to concentrate on more creative and strategic work.
Cognition’s rapid ascent has been remarkable; within a year of launching Devin, the company’s valuation soared to nearly $4 billion. Its investors include prominent venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale, co-founders of Palantir. Despite this close collaboration, Goldman Sachs does not hold an equity stake in Cognition.
The deployment of AI engineers like Devin inevitably raises concerns about job displacement. Industry analyses suggest that the banking sector could see up to 200,000 job cuts globally over the next three to five years as AI adoption accelerates.
Nevertheless, Argenti envisions a future where humans and AI coexist in a “hybrid workforce.” He emphasised the importance of engineers developing skills to articulate problems clearly and effectively prompt AI systems, while overseeing their outputs. “It’s really about people and AIs working side by side.”
While software development is particularly suited to AI-driven automation through reinforcement learning, Argenti anticipates that other roles within financial institutions will soon follow.
“Those models are basically just as good as any developer, it’s really cool. So I think that will serve as a proof point also to expand it to other places,” he added.