The generative AI intelligence revolution has begun with a whimper, not a bang at Morgan Stanley.
The investment bank rolled out a new artificial intelligence tool on Monday that enables its army of economic advisers to quickly access an estimated 100,000 research papers and documents.
Nevertheless, the bot – called AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistant – has been removed from helpful in its first few days, multiple sources told On The Money.
Not only is it difficult to search out on the corporate’s internal web page, it also falls wanting more popular generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Bard, they said.
“It’s spotty on accuracy and selective in what it could possibly actually answer,” one source on the bank said. “I keep getting ‘I’m unable to reply your query’ as my response.’”
Others labeled the initiative – announced with much pomp by Morgan Stanley co-president Andy Saperstein – nothing greater than a publicity stunt.
Rebranding a bot as “AI” is a method to signal they’re ahead of their peers in terms of adopting new technology, one source scoffed.
“It’s the standard stuff they usually just call it AI,” a source said.
While Bard and ChatGPT are way more sophisticated tools, they don’t give out specific financial advice and only provide general details about how investing works and various kinds of investment vehicles to think about. Morgan Stanley’s tool goals to supply more specific, concrete guidance but evidently hasn’t quite gotten there yet.
“Financial advisers will at all times be the middle of Morgan Stanley wealth management’s universe,” Saperstein said in unveiling the AI assistant. “We also imagine that generative AI will revolutionize client interactions, bring new efficiencies to adviser practices, and ultimately help unlock time to do what you do best: serve your clients.” A spokesperson for Morgan Stanley didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
In recent months, banks have jockeyed to rent the perfect talent and turn into probably the most competitive within the AI sector. One firm has even created an index that ranks banks against one another for who’s best within the space.
This has stoked fears that generative AI could lead on to massive job cuts amongst already jittery Wall Street employees.
But for now, it looks like Morgan Stanley advisers have little to fret about.