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OpenA.I Is Going After Banker Jobs Now
Joshua Clear
October 23, 2025
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Listen, we need to talk about what OpenAI is doing with Project Mercury, because it's both hilarious and terrifying in equal measure.
Here's the setup: OpenAI has assembled over 100 ex-investment bankers—we're talking Goldman, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley alumni—and they're paying them $150/hour to teach AI how to do the soul-crushing grunt work that defines junior analyst life. Building IPO models. Formatting pitch decks. Making sure percentages are properly italicized in Excel spreadsheets. (Yes, that's apparently a thing that matters.)
The thing is, this isn't some moonshot experiment. This is OpenAI systematically reverse-engineering the entire entry-level banking workflow, one tedious spreadsheet at a time.
What's Actually Happening
Project Mercury contractors go through a gauntlet—AI chatbot interviews, financial statement tests, Excel modeling exercises—just to earn the privilege of creating the "perfect" analyst work product. Then they craft prompts, build templates, and critique AI outputs until the system can replicate what a first-year analyst would spend 80 hours a week producing.
The target? All those tasks that make junior bankers question their life choices at 2am: building LBO models, restructuring analyses, cleaning up formatting, assembling pitch books.
Why This Matters (And Why It's Different)
Here's the kicker: OpenAI isn't trying to replace bankers entirely. They're going after something more strategic—the repetitive structure work that's abundant, standardized, and teachable.
Think about what Excel did to finance in the 80s and 90s. It didn't eliminate analysts; it changed what they did. Project Mercury is the next iteration of that shift.
Industry experts estimate this could automate 60-70% of time spent on routine model work within a year. But the remaining 30%? That's where things get interesting. Junior analysts won't disappear—they'll just be expected to handle increasingly complex, quantitative work right out of the gate.
The traditional "rite of passage" of suffering through formatting hell for two years before you get to do real analysis? That's getting compressed or eliminated entirely.
The Real Game
OpenAI isn't just building better tools—they're commoditizing domain expertise. Every template these contractors create, every prompt they refine, every feedback loop they complete becomes part of a system that can eventually do high-stakes financial modeling at scale.
Meanwhile, the competition is scrambling. Citi, BofA, McKinsey—everyone's rolling out their own generative AI tools for document analysis and slide generation. But OpenAI's approach is different: they're going deep on one vertical, using actual domain experts to train the system properly.
What Comes Next
We're watching the skillset requirements for entry-level finance jobs shift in real-time. Programming ability? AI literacy? Those are quickly becoming table stakes. The pure Excel jockey role is becoming obsolete before our eyes.
Will this lead to mass layoffs? Maybe. Probably. But more likely, it'll look like what happens in every automation wave—teams get leaner, expectations get higher, and the bar for entry moves up.
The junior analysts who survive this transition won't be the ones who can format a pitch deck the fastest. They'll be the ones who understand both the finance and the AI doing the heavy lifting.
And honestly? That sounds like a better job anyway.
Times of India - ChatGPT maker OpenAI hired 100 ex bankers from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley to train AI
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/chatgpt-maker-openai-hired-100-ex-bankers-from-jpmorgan-goldman-sachs-and-morgan-stanley-to-train-these-new-models/articleshow/124726079.cmsFinextra - OpenAI hires Wall Street bankers to train AI in financial models
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/46795/openai-hires-wall-street-bankers-to-train-ai-in-financial-modelsYahoo Finance - OpenAI Hires Ex-Goldman Staff to Help Cut Down Junior Bankers’ Work
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openai-hires-ex-goldman-staff-100652294.htmlEntrepreneur - OpenAI Is Paying Ex-Investment Bankers to Train Its AI
https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/openai-is-paying-ex-investment-bankers-to-train-its-ai/498585CNBC TV18 - OpenAI's new project could make junior bankers redundant
https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/openais-new-project-could-make-junior-bankers-redundant-19723203.htmTipRanks - OpenAI Taps Wall Street Talent to Train Its AI on Real Banking Work
https://www.tipranks.com/news/openai-taps-wall-street-talent-to-train-its-ai-on-real-banking-workObserver - OpenAI Is Coming After Entry-Level Finance Work
https://observer.com/2025/10/openai-coming-for-entry-level-bankers/LinkedIn News - OpenAI's new project aims to automate banking busywork
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/openais-new-project-aims-to-automate-banking-busywork-6705212/Yahoo Finance - Sam Altman's OpenAI is coming for Wall Street's grunt work
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sam-altman-openai-coming-wall-100300002.htmlBloomberg Opinion - OpenAI Is Building a Banker
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-10-21/openai-is-building-a-bankerFortune - Sam Altman's OpenAI is coming for Wall Street's grunt work
https://fortune.com/2025/10/22/sam-altman-openai-wall-street-junior-bankers-ai-entry-level-jobs/Forbes - OpenAI's Secret Financial Project
https://www.forbes.com/sites/the-prompt/2025/10/21/openais-secret-project/Seeking Alpha - OpenAI hires over 100 ex-investment bankers to train AI on financial modeling — report
https://seekingalpha.com/news/4505969-openai-hires-over-100-ex-investment-bankers-to-train-ai-on-financial-modeling---report
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