The AI job-pocalypse hasn’t come for Bank of America’s summer internship — but good luck trying to land a spot.
The bank has hired nearly 4,000 summer interns and full-time campus recruits this year, split roughly evenly between the two, in line with last year’s numbers. Around 240,000 people applied for fewer than 2,000 internships, Josh Bronstein, the global head of talent, said, bringing the application rate to around 0.8%.
Bronstein said that applications ticked upwards this year, likely both because of AI tools that make it easier to apply and a genuine increase in competition.
CEO Brian Moynihan has previously said the firm, which employs more than 213,000 people, has cut operational and processing roles but continues to hire in key areas like relationship management, technology, and cybersecurity. Bronstein told Business Insider that junior hires remain a strategic priority, especially as the bank looks for “career-minded” applicants who can see themselves staying there. The “vast majority” of interns typically get a return offer, he said.
“We are being very intentional and thoughtful about the investments that we’re making for the long term through hiring,” Bronstein said. “That includes our campus class. We believe this is an important pipeline. It is a deliberate approach.”
Bronstein said that while he can’t predict whether or how the number of young hires will change — “it’s hard to have a crystal ball” — the financial sector has weathered other waves of technological change, and the bank remains committed to entry-level talent.
This summer’s interns are entering a transforming Wall Street, as AI reshuffles workflows and career trajectories. While interns used to help draft the pitch decks and build the models that AI tools can now handle, many will now be expected to use AI for those tasks and devote time to higher-order work.
AI is changing recruitment
Bronstein said that as the “half-life of technical skills” continues to shrink, Bank of America is looking for young applicants with strong “human skills,” like judgement and agility. It’s important to have the right technical talent, he said, but also the capacity to perform the tasks that remain after AI automation.
Moynihan echoed that in a Fox & Friends interview on Wednesday, saying the bank wants candidates who demonstrate “intellectual rigor” and “curiosity.”
“Study something deeply, learn about it, but keep that curiosity to a whole bunch of other subjects,” he said.
When Bank of America’s interns start on Monday, they’ll be among the newest Wall Streeters using AI from the moment training begins. Bronstein said that interns will receive AI training specific to their line of business. The firm is thinking through how to train young people who will no longer do much of the manual, fundamental work that once defined early years on Wall Street.
“You’re seeing a shift in the entry point that these teammates are coming into,” Bronstein said. “We’ve got to give people the experiences in a simulated way quickly, so that they have the judgment that they otherwise would have gained by doing some of those tasks in their first year or two, that now, or soon, AI or other technology can do.”
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