Good morning. Goldman Sachs is betting huge on utilizing AI to basically rethink how the corporate operates.
On the Goldman Sachs U.S. Monetary Companies Convention on Tuesday, CFO Denis Coleman mentioned the corporate’s just lately introduced OneGS 3.0 initiative—a multiyear overhaul of its OneGS program aimed toward integrating AI all through the financial institution’s working mannequin to cut back complexity and increase productiveness. The trouble is a prime precedence and can contain each division and performance throughout the corporate, from enterprise strains to manage capabilities to engineering, Coleman stated. “At its core, it’s an effort to drive more scale and more growth,” he stated.
Goldman Sachs (No. 32 on the Fortune 500) is emphasizing the standard, availability, accuracy, and timeliness of knowledge that underpins all of its AI initiatives, Coleman famous. That focus contains guaranteeing the corporate invests correctly in shared platforms that span the group.
“We’re asking all of our people to rethink the human processes they go through,” Coleman stated. “And then we’re making investments in AI and agentic AI to accelerate change across these processes and platforms.”
They’ve recognized six discrete workstreams, created devoted groups, and tasked them with reviewing key actions, analyzing ache factors, and figuring out alternatives for effectivity, he stated. Every group will then current formal funding instances for management overview.
“We’ll fund some of those investments and hold teams accountable for the productivity outcomes that follow,” Coleman stated. “This is a fundamental rethinking of how we expect our people to operate at Goldman Sachs.”
He added, “We don’t want to simply add more manual processes to drive growth. We need to convert some of that effort into digitized and automated systems—and rethink how those engines work.” Coleman expressed optimism that the OneGS 3.0 technique will assist gasoline the agency’s continued development.
‘The bar for talent remains high’
In the course of the dialogue, Coleman additionally addressed the expertise surroundings, a key concern for a lot of CFOs. “We continue to see incredible demands for people who want to come and work at Goldman Sachs, more than a million people asking to move in laterally to the firm,” Coleman stated. “We can accommodate far less than 1%, so we’re still in a position to be extremely selective on the people that we hire.”
Goldman Sachs diminished headcount earlier in 2025 as a part of its annual efficiency overview course of, which usually targets the bottom 3% to five% of performers. The corporate moved that course of as much as the second quarter from its typical September timing. Regardless of these cuts, Goldman nonetheless expects a web enhance in headcount by the top of 2025, supported by hiring in key development areas.
“The bar for talent remains very high,” Coleman stated. “We continue to operate as a pay-for-performance organization. Our goal is to pay competitively—especially for our very best people in each domain—and we are laser-focused on that.”
He added, “As long as markets stay buoyant and the outlook remains optimistic, maintaining that focus will be critical.”
Relating to the U.S. financial outlook, Coleman described it as “resilient and conducive to business.” He added, “We obviously have a Fed decision coming up. Our economists expect a 25-basis-point cut, likely followed by a pause at the beginning of 2026, and then possibly two more cuts.” Coleman additionally famous that 2025 is shaping as much as be the second-biggest 12 months in historical past for introduced mergers and acquisitions industrywide.
Leaderboard
Fortune 500 Energy Strikes
Kathryn A. Mikells, senior vice chairman and chief monetary officer of Exxon Mobil (No. 8), will retire efficient Feb. 1, 2026. Mikells, who has undergone a number of procedures to deal with a debilitating however non-life-threatening well being concern, is stepping all the way down to give attention to her restoration, in line with an SEC submitting.
Mikells is among the many CFOs represented on the Fortune Most Highly effective Ladies listing for 2025. She joined Exxon Mobil in 2021. Mikells is the corporate’s first official CFO; earlier than her appointment, the finance duties have been shared throughout a spread of government roles. Mikells is the primary girl to hitch the administration committee of Exxon Mobil.
On Dec. 8, Exxon Mobil named Neil A. Hansen, 51, as her successor. Hansen has served as president of Exxon Mobil International Enterprise Options since Might 2025 and beforehand held senior roles in Vitality Merchandise, Europe, Africa and Center East Fuels, and within the firm’s controllers, audit, treasury, and investor relations departments, together with vice chairman of investor relations and company secretary.
Like different government officers of the company, Hansen is not going to have an employment contract. His annual wage will likely be $1.02 million, and he stays eligible for performance-based bonuses and long-term fairness incentives.
Each Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Energy Strikes column tracks Fortune 500 firm C-suite shifts—see the newest version.
Extra notable strikes
Jeff Chesnut was appointed CFO of Conestoga Vitality, a supplier of low-carbon depth, efficient instantly. With over 25 years of expertise in strategic planning, capital markets, and finance, Chesnut will play a pivotal position in executing Conestoga’s development technique. Previous to becoming a member of Conestoga, Chesnut served as SVP of treasury, investor relations and company improvement at Upbound Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: UPBD). Earlier than that, he served as EVP and CFO at publicly listed Loyalty Ventures Inc., which was a by-product from publicly listed Alliance Information Methods, Inc. (now Bread Monetary), the place he spent over a decade.
James Robert “Rob” Foster was promoted to SVP of finance and CFO of ATI Inc. (NYSE: ATI), efficient Jan. 1. Foster succeeds Don Newman, who will function strategic advisor to the CEO starting Jan. 1. As beforehand introduced, Newman will retire on March 1, 2026, and serve in an advisory capability. Foster, a longtime ATI chief, most just lately served as president of ATI’s specialty alloys and parts enterprise. He beforehand served as ATI’s VP of finance, provide chain and capital initiatives, overseeing the corporate’s international finance group, capital deployment processes, and enterprise provide chain efficiency. Earlier, he led finance for each ATI’s working segments and the solid merchandise enterprise.
Massive Deal
The eleventh annual Ladies within the Office report, launched by McKinsey & Firm and LeanIn.Org, examines the state of ladies in company America and Canada. This 12 months, solely half of corporations are prioritizing girls’s profession development—a continuation of a multiyear decline in dedication to gender range. For the primary time, girls are much less than males in being promoted.
One of many key findings is that sponsorship issues. “Women overall are less likely than men to have a sponsor—and entry-level women stand out for receiving far less sponsorship than any other group of women or men,” in line with the report. “Even when entry-level women do have a sponsor, they’re promoted at a lower rate than men. Sponsors have a substantial impact on career outcomes: in the past two years, employees with sponsors have been promoted at nearly twice the rate of those without.”
Courtesy of LeanIn.Org and McKinsey. From the report, Ladies within the Office.
Going deeper
“When Employees Feel Slighted, They Work Less” is a brand new report in Wharton’s enterprise journal. New analysis from Wharton’s Peter Cappelli reveals how even the slightest mistreatment at work can lead to misplaced productiveness. Emphasizing respect may also help corporations mitigate productiveness loss, in line with the analysis.
Overheard
“I think in the next five years, you’re going to see large sections of factory work replaced by robots—and part of the reason for that is that these physical AI robots can be reprogrammed into different tasks.”
—Arm CEO Rene Haas stated at Fortune Brainstorm AI in San Francisco on Monday.
