Goldman Sachs trials Devin

Goldman Sachs is piloting Devin, an AI software engineer developed by Cognition Labs, to enhance developer productivity. The bank aims to create a 'hybrid workforce' where AI agents collaborate with its 12,000 human developers. Initially, hundreds, and potentially thousands, of Devin instances will be deployed to handle routine engineering tasks such as updating internal codebases.

Devin can perform tasks like coding, debugging, documenting, and submitting pull requests, freeing human developers to focus on higher-value projects. This move underscores Wall Street's increasing adoption of agentic AI tools, which can execute complex, multi-step projects. While AI adoption raises concerns about job displacement, Goldman Sachs is leveraging AI to offload repetitive tasks, potentially reducing the risk of significant job cuts.

Cognition Labs, the startup behind Devin, was founded in late 2023 and is valued at nearly $4 billion. The company claims Devin is the world's first fully autonomous software engineer, capable of completing multistep coding tasks with minimal human input. Goldman Sachs' initiative signals a broader trend in the financial sector, where AI is being used to modernise infrastructure and handle complex tasks.