Goldman Sachs tells interns to embrace AI in an innovation supercycle

Goldman Sachs is telling its newest hires to treat AI as part of the job, not a side project. In a June 17 welcome note for its 2026 summer interns, the firm called the moment a “unique period” in financial services and an “extraordinary time” to be at Goldman Sachs, then urged interns to show up with intent, stay curious, ask questions, learn the firm and experiment with Goldman’s AI solutions to improve workflows.

The message landed against a deal backdrop Goldman clearly wants juniors to notice. The firm said its client SpaceX priced a $75 billion IPO on June 11, which Goldman described as the largest ever brought to market, and said global M&A volumes were already above $2.6 trillion this year as AI and strategic consolidation reshape industries. For interns headed into New York and Wall Street’s most selective training pipelines, the subtext is plain: the firm wants them to learn in the middle of live flows, not in a classroom on the sidelines.

Goldman’s 2025 annual report gives the scale of that machine. The bank said 2025 net revenues rose 9% to $58.3 billion, earnings per share climbed 27% to $51.32 and return on equity reached 15.0%. It also said it remained the No. 1 M&A advisor for the 23rd straight year, cut historical principal investments by more than 90% from roughly $64 billion to $6 billion and lowered its stress capital buffer by a cumulative 320 basis points since 2020. That is the environment the interns are walking into: high expectations, intense client demand and a management team that sees AI as part of the operating model.

The welcome note also sharpens what Goldman expects from junior talent on day one. The firm’s students page says interns get hands-on experience and learn by getting involved in real projects, not by watching from the sidelines. Goldman says the 2026 internship program includes 2.5K-plus interns, 500-plus schools and 70-plus languages, but it also reported a selection rate of less than 1% for summer internships in 2025. That combination makes the message less like a pep talk than a filter: the bank wants people who can absorb feedback quickly, work with senior bankers and use new tools without losing the basics of judgment and client service.

That matters for analysts and associates who supervise them. Goldman’s AI push is already broader than the summer program. CNBC reported in January 2025 that the bank had rolled out GS AI Assistant to about 10,000 employees and aimed to give it to all knowledge workers that year, initially for tasks like email summaries, proofreading and code translation. On May 4, Goldman also joined Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman in announcing a new enterprise AI services company. The message to incoming talent is clear: apprenticeship still matters, but at Goldman, the apprenticeship now includes learning when to use AI, when not to, and how to pair it with the instincts that still separate a good junior banker from a replaceable one.