Wall Street’s most prestigious investment bank just made history. Goldman Sachs has started testing an autonomous artificial intelligence developer that writes code without human help.
The financial powerhouse is running trials with “Devin,” an AI-powered software engineer from startup Cognition. This marks the first time a major banking institution has deployed such advanced autonomous technology.
Marco Argenti, Goldman’s Chief Information Officer, confirmed the groundbreaking initiative this week. The former Amazon executive sees this as a game-changing moment for financial technology.
“We’re going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee who’s going to start doing stuff on the behalf of our developers,” Argenti said in a recent interview.
Revolutionary technology enters finance
Devin represents a massive leap forward in artificial intelligence capabilities. Unlike basic chatbots or simple coding assistants, this system functions as a complete software engineer.
The AI can write complex programs from scratch. It debugs existing code. It converts old systems to modern programming languages. Most importantly, it works independently with minimal oversight.
Cognition launched Devin in 2024, calling it the world’s first AI software engineer. The company demonstrated the technology completing multi-step programming tasks that typically require human developers.
Now Goldman Sachs is putting that technology to work on Wall Street.
Massive scale deployment planned
Goldman’s pilot program could expand rapidly. Argenti revealed the bank’s plans to deploy hundreds of AI developers initially.
“Initially, we will have hundreds of Devins [and] that might go into the thousands, depending on the use cases,” the technology chief explained.
This scale suggests Goldman views AI developers as more than an experiment. The bank appears ready to transform its entire software development process.
The investment bank employs thousands of technology professionals. Adding hundreds or thousands of AI developers would represent a fundamental shift in how financial institutions operate.
Silicon Valley meets Wall Street
Cognition emerged as an AI startup in late 2023. Within 18 months, the company reached a valuation approaching $4 billion by March 2025.
Notable investors include Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale, both co-founders of data analytics giant Palantir. The company assembled a team of elite engineers and competitive programming champions.
Goldman Sachs does not hold equity in Cognition, according to sources familiar with the arrangement. The bank is purely a customer testing the technology.
Beyond traditional AI applications
Most banks currently use artificial intelligence for basic tasks. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley deploy AI for document summarization and internal tools.
Goldman’s approach ventures into more sophisticated territory. Software engineering has long been considered safe from automation due to its complexity and creativity requirements.
Research from Bloomberg Intelligence projects that 200,000 banking jobs could face displacement within five years due to AI integration.
Major technology companies already rely heavily on AI for code generation. Microsoft and Alphabet report that AI now produces about 30% of their production code. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently stated AI accounts for nearly half his company’s output in some divisions.
Productivity revolution expected
Argenti believes Devin could deliver unprecedented productivity gains. The Goldman executive expects the AI to triple or quadruple output compared to existing AI tools.
“Those models are basically just as good as any developer, it’s really cool,” Argenti noted. “So I think that will serve as a proof point also to expand it to other places.”
This productivity surge could provide Goldman with a significant competitive advantage in financial markets.
Human-AI collaboration model
Despite automation fears, Goldman promotes a collaborative approach rather than a replacement strategy.
“It’s really about people and AIs working side-by-side,” Argenti emphasized. “Engineers are going to be expected to have the ability to really describe problems in a coherent way and turn it into prompts … and then be able to supervise the work of those agents.”
This vision transforms human developers into supervisors and prompt engineers. They would direct AI agents rather than write code directly.
Industry transformation ahead
Goldman’s Devin pilot represents the beginning of a broader transformation. Success could lead to AI deployment across risk management, compliance, trading, and investment research.
Traditional finance institutions have typically lagged behind technology adoption. Goldman’s bold move signals Wall Street’s readiness to embrace advanced AI capabilities.
The banking sector appears poised for a technological revolution. Firms that successfully integrate human expertise with AI capabilities will likely dominate future markets.
As artificial intelligence continues advancing through machine learning and real-world training, its capabilities will expand further. Goldman Sachs is positioning itself at the forefront of this evolution.
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