Goldman Sachs built its talent pipeline around apprenticeship. AI is now testing what that means
- How does the apprenticeship model evolve when AI takes over the work that once taught the trade?
- AI can accelerate junior employees’ output while slowing the learning curve that once came from doing the work themselves.
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Goldman Sachs built its talent pipeline around apprenticeship. AI is now testing what that means
How do you develop talent when AI does the work they once learned from?
Goldman Sachs approaches the first months of a young employee’s career as a formative period. The company puts new hires close enough to experienced bankers and traders to learn what no classroom could teach: how a client conversation actually works, why a senior colleague makes a particular call, and what to notice before anyone explains it.
AI is changing the economics of that first pass and potentially the learning that came with it. The pressure is now showing up in a new place. Goldman’s internal research says entry-level workers are already facing stronger AI-related hiring headwinds than more senior employees. Entry-level work has traditionally served two purposes: getting the work done and training the person doing it. If AI eliminates enough of the former, companies have to deliberately recreate the latter.
At the same time, Chris Churchman, who heads Marquee, Goldman’s digital platform for institutional clients, warns that the bank could automate away some of the very experiences through which junior employees learn to become senior ones.
So, what happens to the apprenticeship model when AI starts doing the work apprentices used to learn from?
Goldman’s early-career programs were always deliberately hands-on
When I spoke with Omer Tanvir, Goldman Sachs’ former global head of campus and diversity recruiting, for Tearsheet’s coverage of the bank’s 2024 summer internship program, the word “apprenticeship” described how the firm expected young people to learn.
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