AI News: Morgan Stanley Names Artificial Intelligence Head

American multinational investment banking giant Morgan Stanley has appointed a lead for its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Division. 

Jeff McMillan Tapped to Lead AI Unit

Jeff McMillan, one of Morgan Stanley’s tech executives, specifically from its wealth management team, has been promoted to head the firm’s AI unit. Notably, the New York-based bank made this move as part of its plans to implement AI across its business in sync with its blooming growth strategy. 

“We are pleased to announce that Jeff McMillan has assumed a new position as Head of Firmwide Artificial Intelligence, co-reporting to us,” Morgan Stanley itemised in the memo that was sent from co-presidents Andy Saperstein and Dan Simkowitz.

Before now, McMillan was the lead for Wealth Management’s Analytics, Data and Innovation organization. As the head, he played a huge role in driving the institution’s technological evolution, “from the Modern Wealth Management platform to most recently our groundbreaking work with our exclusive partner, OpenAI.”

The new Morgan Stanley AI head’s responsibility will include coordination across the firm to ensure that the firm is equipped with the appropriate AI governance and strategies. McMillan will still be required to collaborate with the firm’s business unit to identify and prioritize AI-driven opportunities. Ultimately, Morgan Stanley’s intention is to continue to push the frontiers in AI as well as with other innovative technologies. 

Morgan Stanley to Grow AI Presence

Morgan Stanley is one of the few Wall Street firms that has demonstrated open-mindedness towards AI. In 2023, it created a solution for its employees based on OpenAI’s GPT-4, making it the first major Wall Street firm to offer such an innovative tool. It is worth noting that this project was overseen by McMillan at the time. 

Morgan Stanley’s AI move suggests that Wall Street may be warming up to the idea of having AI and its tools established in the arena. Many other jurisdictions and organizations including top financial service providers, game developers and tech firms, are also becoming more receptive towards AI amidst conversation on the prospects of the generative technology. 

One of the pioneers is Cognition Labs, a startup that just released the first AI software engineer dubbed Devin. This AI model has the capacity to perform autonomous coding and also fine-tune its AI models. Google’s Genie was also launched as a new revolution in the game design landscape.