AI moving from 'hype' to real execution, JPMorgan's Brunner says

Enthusiasm for artificial intelligence is no longer just rosy predictions about the future, with the technology now making significant real-world impacts, according to Kevin Brunner, JPMorgan Chase's global chair of investment banking and mergers and acquisitions.

"We've actually gone from hype to real execution and scaling," Brunner said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg TV at the bank's global technology, media and communications conference in Boston. "Every company here is very focused on what's their long-term strategic narrative, and are in the early stages of doing so."

Job cuts are an obvious outcome of AI-driven automation, with the latest example coming from Standard Chartered Plc. The London-based bank said Tuesday it would cut close to 8,000 support roles over the next four years partly by using AI to streamline operations. Goldman Sachs COO John Waldron earlier this month described his firm's operations as a "human assembly line" ripe for automation.

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As winners and losers emerge, the impact of AI on mergers and acquisitions will be significant, Brunner said. 

"It's impacting every client that we have," he said. "There's not a client that we talk to that's not actually thinking through where they are in the landscape, what's their long strategic narrative, and how they're going to adapt to a changing environment."

Brunner added that access to capital hasn't been a barrier to M&A so far. "We're seeing people push forward, do deals of size, and make sure they're actually repositioning themselves on the chessboard for the path forward," he said, adding that consolidation will inevitably result.