Can AI replace investment banking analysts?

AI augments analysts rather than replaces them. Traditional work—40 hours building pitch decks, manual target screening, line-by-line contract review, formatting comps at 2AM—can be automated. AI drafts DCF models in 30 minutes (not 6 hours), identifies M&A targets by metrics, flags contract terms, generates first-draft materials. This frees analysts for strategic work: relationship building, creative deal structuring, judgment calls. Firms mastering AI have analysts doing 80% strategic work while AI handles 20% extraction.

How is AI being used in investment banking in 2026?

AI automates extraction and formatting in investment banking: drafting financial models, screening acquisition targets by growth metrics and adjacencies, summarizing risk factors from contracts, generating pitch materials. The resistance is trust (accuracy, confidentiality, nuance), but firms using AI strategically gain competitive edge. Early adopters reassign analysts to strategic work—deal sourcing, relationship management—while AI handles the 60 hours of manual tasks, delivering analyst-level output in 6 hours.

What investment banking tasks should be automated with AI?

Automate repetitive extraction and formatting: building comparable company analyses, drafting initial DCF models, screening potential M&A targets, summarizing contract terms and risks, generating first-draft pitch decks. Don't automate strategic judgment, relationship building, or creative deal structuring. The 20% of work that moves deals forward (strategy, relationships) should remain human. The 80% that supports deals (data extraction, modeling, formatting) should be AI-driven.

December 31, 2025

AI in Investment Banking

Githui Maina

Founder & AI Systems Architect

Most investment bankers spend 60+ hours per week on work that AI could do in 6.

The traditional path: analyst → associate → VP → MD. Each promotion is a badge of survival. You've proven you can grind harder than the next person.

But what if the game has fundamentally changed?

The Old Model:

40 hours building pitch decks
Manual screening of acquisition targets
Line-by-line contract review
Formatting comps at 2 AM

The New Model:

AI drafts DCF models in 30 minutes (not 6 hours)
AI identifies M&A targets by growth metrics, geography, adjacencies
AI flags key contract terms, summarizes risk factors
AI generates first-draft pitch materials

The resistance isn't capability. It's trust.

Bankers worry: "Will it be accurate? What about confidentiality? Does AI understand nuance?"

Fair concerns. But here's the reality:

The firms mastering this will have analysts doing strategic work—relationship building, creative structuring, judgment calls—while AI handles extraction and formatting.

The competitive edge isn't having AI tools. It's knowing which 20% of your workflow to automate so you can focus on the 80% that moves deals forward.

Linear effort has a ceiling. Leverage doesn't.