Category: productivity

AI, banking, Business Models, productivity

OpenAI Hires Ex-Goldman Staff to Help Cut Down Junior Bankers’ Grunt Work

Colin Henderson

In this Article By Omar El Chmouri October 21, 2025 at 6:06 AM EDT Takeaways by Bloomberg AI OpenAI has more than 100 ex-investment bankers helping train its artificial intelligence on how to build financial models as it looks to replace the hours of grunt work performed by junior bankers across the industry. The group, which includes former employees of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is part of a secretive project inside the startup that’s code named Mercury, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. Participants are paid $150 per hour to write prompts and build financial models for a range … Continue reading OpenAI Hires Ex-Goldman Staff to Help Cut Down Junior Bankers’ Grunt Work

AI, Business Models, productivity

Comprehensive Report on the Evolution of LLM and Potential Predictions for Future

Colin Henderson

I have a new report, and first draft is available. Comprehensive Report on the Evolution of LLM and Potential Predictions for Future Executive Summary This report examines the evolution of Large Language Models (LLMs) from their origins in statistical language modeling through the transformative Transformer breakthrough to current state-of-the-art systems, with projections for development through 2030. The research synthesizes findings from academic literature, industry whitepapers, and regulatory frameworks to provide insights into technical innovations, regional approaches, organizational strategies, and future trajectories. Key findings indicate that LLMs have progressed from basic pre-training architectures to sophisticated systems incorporating reinforcement learning, synthetic data … Continue reading Comprehensive Report on the Evolution of LLM and Potential Predictions for Future

AI, productivity

The Progress of AI Outpaces Implementation Speed (BNY Mellon)

Colin Henderson

Referring to recent posts and the ponderously slow adoption of operational deployment of AI targetted at efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. This was highlighted in the recent MIT paper entitled The GenAI Divide and covered here on this blog. The central theme is how companies are going to great lengths to encourage employees to use AI as illustrated by Deloitte deploying Anthropic to 470K employees. These are admirable efforts to educate employees and I have no doubt there will be benefits in terms of new ideas to operationalise AI at the company level. Hoever the pace of change is not encouraging … Continue reading The Progress of AI Outpaces Implementation Speed (BNY Mellon)

AI, Growth, productivity

Bain – Many pilots, but not enough scaling with lack of clarity on objectives

Colin Henderson

Commentary from Greg @ Bain & Co. The theme is similar to what is becoming clear that business is deploying AI on employee desktops, but there is much less operational deployment targetted at productivity growth. ______________ Every other week we’ll provide updates on the latest value levers and trends operators are asking us about in Technology and Software. If there are things you want to hear more about – shoot us a note. Let’s start with the easy answer: Yes, AI is real and we have clients achieving 10-25% EBITDA improvement (top and bottom line). However, for every success story … Continue reading Bain – Many pilots, but not enough scaling with lack of clarity on objectives

AI, Growth, productivity

Productivity diffusion and invention during era shifts

Colin Henderson

Repost from my post to Medium Jun 2024. Introduction: I wanted to repost this from 2024 mainly to reflect what ha happened in the intervening year, where I was wrong and what we need to learn to move real gains in Productivity. _____________________________________________ How technology strategy, leadership and being the inventor does not associate with leadership. I have been considering the relevance of AI in context of more than just another invention, rather the catalyst for a step change in productivity. I believe AI, AGI and beyond will bring significant and consequential changes to countries, companies and people. But only if … Continue reading Productivity diffusion and invention during era shifts

AI, Business Models, Innovation, productivity

Blackrock Investment themes 2025

Colin Henderson

In listening to Blackrock Jay Jacobs Head of ETF he mentioned the investment themes Blackrock has identified in the context of re-industrialisation of the economy. See below for detail, but the core three are: Mega Force Description & Investment Implications Demographic Divergence Aging populations in developed economies are expected to constrain growth and productivity, while emerging markets with younger populations and expanding middle classes may benefit from higher growth potential[3][5]. Digital Disruption & AI The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and digital technologies is transforming productivity, business models, and entire industries. BlackRock sees AI as a foundational driver of future … Continue reading Blackrock Investment themes 2025

productivity, Profitability, regulation

StableCoin needs clear definition similar to Bretton Woods

Colin Henderson

The debate between USDC exemplified by Circle and USDT associated with Tether brings many of the realities of crypto into focus. The perennial debate has been whether Bitcoin is an asset class lke Gold or Silver or is it a useful alternative currency to fiat. Bankwatch Research Research and background on USDC and USDT. The recent Compass Point report made two points, and thus fails as an analytical support document: 1. Market Penetration – USDT has that 2. Additional cost structure for USDC (Circle ) associated with regulatry requirements similar to banking, will hinder profitability If we explore the second … Continue reading StableCoin needs clear definition similar to Bretton Woods

crypto, Payments, productivity, Risk2 Comments

Compare USDC (Circle) vs USDT (Tether) in 2025

Colin Henderson

The battle is now on. The newest StableCoin USDC offered by Circle is regulated with clearly defined regularly audited reserve requirements. Tender which has been around 5 years longer offers a StableCoin USDT. The challenge lies in the difference between the StableCoins and no regulation exists to define a StableCoin. USDT has loosely defined reserves comprising third party off balance sheet items and which can be deemed worthless to a banker. USDC on the other had requires US $ cash with no obtuse excuses for apparent reserve matching. I did some research across sites using Perplexity (not Google) and. here … Continue reading Compare USDC (Circle) vs USDT (Tether) in 2025

AI, Infrastructure, Innovation, Microsoft, Middle East, Military, productivity, Progress, Security

Coreweave joins ‘hyperscaler’ group

Colin Henderson

Research: CoreWeave’s AI Infrastructure and Market Position They have particular differentiation in 3. Infrastructure Differentiation. it is designed explicitly to operate with GPU infrastructure, and seed investment from Nvidia cements this. They have been around for eight years(8) years but still have startup characteristics. Their debt profile is high and rates are astronomic. They are working with Bank of America to refinance $1.5Bn debt. Their efforts in Spain are spectacular and Spain in particular is in dire need of high tech support. The facility was inaugurated today by the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and Albert Tort, Secretary of Telecommunications and … Continue reading Coreweave joins ‘hyperscaler’ group

productivity

Workers in Canada are now only 70 per cent as productive as their counterparts in the US

Colin Henderson

Workers in Canada are now only 70 per cent as productive as their counterparts in the United States, and our productivity growth lags that of the United Kingdom, Germany and France.August 14, 2024 From: Martin Eichenbaum, Michelle Alexopoulos and Jeremy M. Kronick >Many reasons have been cited for the country’s poor performance, over-regulation and barriers to competition and interprovincial trade among them. >But a lesser-known contributor to the problem is Canada’s focus on investment in the construction industry which tends to have weaker productivity than other industries, said Caranci. >Along with regulation barriers, the industry contains a large number of small … Continue reading Workers in Canada are now only 70 per cent as productive as their counterparts in the US