A Morgan Stanley digital sign is displayed at the company’s headquarters in Times Square in New York, USA, on Friday, January 12, 2016.
John Taggart | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Morgan Stanley promoted the technical lead in his asset management division to become the company’s first head of artificial intelligence, CNBC has learned.
The bank is rising Jeff McMillanveteran New York bank to help implement artificial intelligence across the firm, according to a memo sent Thursday by co-presidents Andy Saperstein and Dan Simkowitz.
Last year, Morgan Stanley became the first major Wall Street firm to create an employee solution based on OpenAI GPT-4, a project overseen by MacMillan.
The move highlights the growing importance of artificial intelligence in financial services, driven by the rapid rise of generative AI tools that create human-like responses to queries.
While Wall Street firms overall cut jobs last year, they competed to fill thousands of AI positions by poaching employees from each other.
In June JPMorgan named Teresa Heitzenreter is its director of data and analytics, responsible for AI implementation. IN Goldman SachsChief Information Officer Marco Argenti is considered a leading advocate of artificial intelligence.
Read Morgan Stanley’s full note announcing McMillan’s new role:
We are pleased to announce that Jeff McMillan has accepted a new position as Head of Artificial Intelligence across the company and will report jointly to us.
Jeff previously led Wealth Management’s analytics, data and innovation division, where he played a key role in Wealth Management’s technology evolution, from our Modern Wealth Management platform to our pioneering work with our exclusive partner OpenAI.
In his new role, Jeff will coordinate across the firm to ensure appropriate AI strategy and governance is in place. In doing so, it will collaborate with business and infrastructure functions to identify and prioritize artificial intelligence capabilities; to help the firm become part of the AI pipeline in the industry and ensure that Morgan Stanley continues to be a respected innovator in AI.
To execute our AI strategy, Jeff will work closely with Mike Pizzi, Head of U.S. Banking and Technology, Sid Visentini, Head of Firm Strategy, and Katie Huberty, Head of Global Research. Katie and Jeff will co-chair the Firmwide AI Leadership Team, comprised of representatives from the business and infrastructure teams.
Please join us in congratulating Jeff on his new role.
