Will ChatGPT Take Over Financial And Investment Jobs?

We've all heard how AI (artificial intelligence) will make many jobs redundant for the longest time. There is always hype for a new AI-based product ever so often, but none has arguably been higher than for ChatGPT.

It has been one of the trendiest topics since its release in late 2022. ChatGPT brings attention to the same-old debate of which jobs AI will unquestionably disrupt.

No stone will be left unturned in this regard: software engineers, data analysts, media work, legal work, accounting, graphic designing, teaching, and the list goes on.

Here, we'll look at ChatGPT's potential impacts on finance and investment-related jobs.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot launched in November 2022 by OpenAI, an American artificial intelligence research laboratory. 'GPT' (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a family of large language models that OpenAI introduced in 2018, the latest being GPT-4 in March 2023.

This is the paid version of ChatGPT. So, what does ChatGPT do? OpenAI calls this product 'artificial intelligence trained to assist with a variety of tasks."

In other words, ChatGPT is an advanced chatbot that goes beyond a software application capable of human-like Q&A. This is where the buzz comes from. ChatGPT can (but is not limited to):

• Write a customised CV and cover letter
• Write essays
• Explain complex topics
• Create jokes
• Give relationship advice
• Write music
• Create, debug and explain code

Elon Musk, one of the many OpenAI co-founders, said, "ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI."

In one week, ChatGPT reached over 1 million users. By January 2023, it had surpassed 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing consumer app in history.

Nonetheless, let's see how impactful and effective this service can be in the finance/investing sector.

How we can use ChatGPT in the finance and investment world

As expected, the scope of ChatGPT is broad, with more use cases being experimented with daily. But here are examples that users have explored:

• Investment recommendations and strategies
• Portfolio allocation suggestions
• Integration with robo advisors
• Customer service tasks
• Automated financial reporting
• Marketing
• Answering questions in a CFA exam
• Improving financial sales
• Risk identification in investment portfolios

The key enabler for ChatGPT to achieve so much is how it can analyse substantial amounts of data. Furthermore, it can do this faster and more efficiently than a human.

All this is, of course, quite useful in the finance and investment world. But is it enough to have employees in this area concerned about losing their jobs?

Problem areas for ChatGPT

While ChatGPT is one of the most advanced chatbots out there, it has many flaws. Users have identified problems across all industries the chatbot is expected to influence. The common denominator is that ChatGPT is only as good as the data and assumptions it possesses.

Needless to say, these are not always accurate or truthful. An answer may look great but turn out nonsensical once you dig deeper into it.

Here are the main problem areas for this chatbot:

• Lack of common sense and emotional intelligence
• Challenges with understanding context
• Biased responses
• Limited knowledge
• Trouble with producing long-form content
• Poor performance in handling multiple tasks simultaneously

Where to from here?

The good news for those in finance and investment-related careers is that AI has little impact for now. Although it can and does aid in a large portion of work, it's not advanced enough to replace a human yet totally.

So, over the next few years, AI won't significantly affect the jobs of those in these industries, given the complexity involved.

Still, most can agree that ChatGPT is a massive achievement in AI and technology, a tipping point for what's to come.

Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, described it best in a December 2022 tweet where he said:

"ChatGPT is incredibly limited but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness. It's a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now. It’s a preview of progress; we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness."