AI skills more valuable than an MBA, financial services leaders say

Though peak AI hype may have cooled, financial services leaders still expect the technology to reshape their workforce, according to a survey by PwC. Around eight in 10 respondents predicted their organizations’ headcount would get at least 20% smaller in the next five years due to AI. At the same time, they placed a high value on AI acumen: 86% said that for many new hires, AI training is “more valuable than an MBA.”

PwC’s 2026 Financial Services Workforce AI Survey, conducted in May, polled 1,004 employees at director level or higher at financial services firms bringing in at least $500 million in revenue. Respondents were equally distributed across industry sectors, including asset and wealth management, banking and capital markets, insurance, and private equity.

The survey painted a picture of a smaller financial services workforce where AI skills are prized. Around half of leaders (51%) polled anticipated a “compression in manual roles” within the next year owing to the adoption of AI, while nearly two-thirds (62%) planned to hire more staff with AI skills.

Respondents also indicated that AI knowledge is in high demand: Around six in 10 (58%) said they’d “pay a premium for AI fluency” within the next year, while the same percentage said they’d link compensation “directly to AI-enabled productivity.”

Leaders at financial services companies are feeling the pressure to adopt AI. Most (90%) shared the belief that organizations need to adapt more quickly in the AI era. And while the majority (70%) said their own firms are moving rapidly, more than three-quarters (77%) said they’re not changing quickly enough.

The press for rapid adoption of AI, though, may be causing more strain on staff. Four in 10 financial services leaders said staff seem “overwhelmed by the pace of AI-driven change,” and 34% said “change fatigue” was a barrier to scaling AI. More than two in five (44%) said their employees were worried about losing their jobs or having their jobs change due to AI.

“To be clear, some employee concerns about job security are valid,” according to PwC. “Financial executives say they are modeling the impact of AI on workforce capacity. Most have at least started this process, and 42% say they’ve done enterprise-wide modeling—a number that will likely go up over time as capabilities improve and as the implications of AI on workforces start to become clearer.”