Citadel CEO Ken Griffin Says AI Now Performs High-Level Research in Hours

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said artificial intelligence has become more powerful than he previously believed. He described seeing AI complete research tasks that once took teams of finance professionals weeks or months. Griffin spoke at Stanford Business School earlier this month. He said he went home one Friday fairly depressed after observing the technology's capabilities inside his firm.

Griffin had expressed doubts about AI in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He told a panel that the technology appeared impressive on the surface but was "all garbage" once examined more closely. He also questioned predictions that 50 percent of entry-level jobs would disappear within five years. Griffin called those forecasts hype meant to justify data center spending.

Griffin said the technology had become profoundly more powerful in recent months. He reported that AI agents now handle high-level financial research previously assigned to people with master's and PhD degrees. Work that once required weeks or months is now completed in hours or days, he stated.

Griffin contrasted this with more modest 15 to 25 percent productivity gains in software engineering. He told the Stanford audience that career success will depend on whether people become lifelong learners. Griffin said AI will make adaptability even more important.

Fortune reported that the firm used generative AI as a research tool for this story and that an editor verified the accuracy of the information.