Good morning. Goldman Sachs is making a substantial wager on leveraging AI to fundamentally transform the firm's operational methods.
TL;DR
- Goldman Sachs is implementing OneGS 3.0, a multiyear plan to embed AI across operations for efficiency.
- The firm is prioritizing data quality, accessibility, precision, and promptness for its AI initiatives.
- Goldman Sachs is seeking to digitize and automate systems, fundamentally rethinking employee operations.
- The company remains highly selective in hiring, with over a million applicants for limited positions.
During the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference held on Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman spoke about the firm's recently unveiled OneGS 3.0 plan. This multiyear undertaking is designed to embed AI across the bank's operational framework, with the goals of simplifying processes and enhancing efficiency. Coleman stated that this initiative is a paramount objective, engaging all departments and roles within the organization, encompassing business units, compliance functions, and technical teams. “At its core, it’s an effort to drive more scale and more growth,” he remarked.
Coleman pointed out that Goldman Sachs (No. 32 on the Coins2Day 500) is prioritizing the caliber, accessibility, precision, and promptness of the information essential for all its AI endeavors. This emphasis extends to guaranteeing the firm makes appropriate investments in unified systems that cover the entire enterprise.
“We’re asking all of our people to rethink the human processes they go through,” Coleman said. “And then we’re making investments in AI and agentic AI to accelerate change across these processes and platforms.”
He stated that six distinct workstreams have been pinpointed, with specialized teams established to examine crucial operations, scrutinize areas of difficulty, and discover avenues for improved effectiveness. Subsequently, each unit will submit official proposals for investment to be evaluated by management.
“We’ll fund some of those investments and hold teams accountable for the productivity outcomes that follow,” Coleman said. “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 strategy will help fuel the firm’s continued growth.
The standard for skilled individuals continues to be elevated.
During the discussion, Coleman also addressed the talent environment, a key concern for many 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 said. “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 decreased its workforce at the beginning of 2025, a move stemming from its yearly evaluation of employee performance, which generally affects the bottom 3% to 5% of staff. This procedure was advanced to the second quarter, deviating from its customary September schedule. Nevertheless, even with these reductions, Goldman anticipates an overall rise in its employee numbers by the close of 2025, fueled by recruitment in crucial expansion sectors.
“The bar for talent remains very high,” Coleman said. “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.”
Concerning the economic prospects for the U.S., Coleman characterized them as “resilient and conducive to business.” He further stated, “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.” Additionally, Coleman pointed out that 2025 is developing into the second most significant year on record for disclosed mergers and acquisitions across the entire sector.
SherylEstrada
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Coins2Day 500 Power Moves
Kathryn A. Mikells, the senior vice president and chief financial officer at Exxon Mobil (No. 8), plans to step down from his position on February 1, 2026. Mikells, having undergone multiple treatments for a severe but not fatal health concern, is resigning to prioritize her recuperation, as stated in an SEC filing.
Mikells is featured on the Coins2Day Most Powerful Women list for 2025. She began her tenure at Exxon Mobil in 2021. Mikells holds the distinction of being the company's inaugural CFO; prior to her assuming the role, financial responsibilities were distributed among several executive positions. Mikells is also the first female member of Exxon Mobil's management committee.
Exxon Mobil appointed Neil A. Hansen, aged 51, to take over on December 8th. Hansen has been the president of Exxon Mobil Global Business Solutions since May 2025, and before that, she occupied significant positions within Energy Products, Europe, Africa and Middle East Fuels, as well as the company's controllers, audit, treasury, and investor relations divisions, notably serving as vice president of investor relations and corporate secretary.
Similar to other senior leaders within the company, Hansen won't possess a formal employment agreement. His yearly compensation is set at $1.02 million, and he continues to qualify for bonuses tied to his achievements and long-term stock awards.
Each Friday morning, the regular Coins2Day 500 Power Moves section monitors changes in the executive ranks of Coins2Day 500 corporations—see the most recent edition.
More notable moves
Jeff Chesnut was appointed CFO of Conestoga Energy, a supplier of low-carbon intensity, effective immediately. With more than 25 years of expertise in strategic planning, capital markets, and finance, Chesnut will be instrumental in implementing Conestoga's expansion plan. Before coming to Conestoga, Chesnut held the position of SVP of treasury, investor relations, and corporate development at Upbound Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: UPBD). Previously, he was EVP and CFO at the publicly traded Loyalty Ventures Inc., which originated as a spinoff from the publicly traded Alliance Data Systems, Inc. (Now Bread Financial), where he worked for over ten years.
James Robert "Rob" Foster was promoted to SVP of finance and CFO of ATI Inc. (NYSE: ATI), commencing January 1st. Foster takes over from Don Newman, who will act as a strategic consultant to the Chief Executive Officer starting January 1st. As previously disclosed, Newman is slated to retire on March 1, 2026, continuing in an advisory role. Foster, a seasoned executive at ATI, most recently held the position of president for ATI's specialty alloys and components division. Prior to that, he was ATI's Vice President of finance, supply chain, and capital projects, managing the firm's worldwide financial operations, investment strategies, and overall supply chain effectiveness. Before that, he was responsible for financial matters within both of ATI's operational units and its forged products division.
Big Deal
The latest report, the 11th annual Women in the Workplace report, from McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org, assesses the situation for women in business across the United States and Canada. This year, a mere fifty percent of organizations are focusing on the professional growth of women, marking a sustained decrease in dedication to gender equality over several years. Notably, for the first time on record, women are expressing less desire for promotions compared to men.
One of the key findings is that sponsorship matters. “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,” according to 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.”
Going deeper
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 said at Coins2Day Brainstorm AI in San Francisco on Monday.
