Goldman Sachs is testing viral AI agent Devin as a ‘new employee’

In a significant move towards modernizing its workforce, Goldman Sachs is integrating Cognition's AI coding assistant, Devin, into its operations. Marco Argenti, the bank's Chief Information Officer, revealed in an interview with CNBC that they plan to enhance their workforce by deploying Devin as a new type of employee. Goldman Sachs intends to introduce hundreds of instances of Devin, with the potential for that number to reach into the thousands. Currently, the bank employs approximately 12,000 human developers, highlighting the ambitious scale of this initiative. Known for its forward-thinking approach, Goldman Sachs has been utilizing developer copilots since at least 2024, despite the financial sector’s generally conservative reputation. Devin, which gained notoriety on social media following its launch last year, has faced scrutiny regarding its performance on more complex coding tasks. As of May, the assistant has been upgraded to version 2.1, with Cognition asserting that it excels when working with extensive codebases that offer sufficient context. Importantly, Argenti clarified that Devin is not intended to replace human developers. Instead, he envisions a hybrid workforce where AI tools like Devin work alongside humans, supervised by them to enhance overall productivity.