Huy Nguyen Trieu, co-founder of CFTE (Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship), a global education company, does not care for the term "Artificial Intelligence." To his mind, the boundary between man and machine has evaporated. When an algorithm can draft a legal brief or code a trading platform as fluently as a human, the word "artificial" feels like a redundant distinction. He prefers the term "Digital Intelligence."Whatever we call it, the financial sector is currently gripped by a specific, AI-driven anxiety: are we witnessing the end of the traditional career path?In 2026, the evidence of a shift is mounting. Several retail brokers have already cited the adoption of AI as the primary reason for reducing their staff numbers. This is not merely a niche trend. There is also growing suspicion that some are using the promise of automation as a convenient excuse to trim costs and flatter their share prices before the next earnings call.Trieu views this impulse as a symptom of a deeper psychological conflict. He notes that many leaders have fallen into a trap of jobless growth, viewing their staff primarily as a cost centre to be minimised rather than seeing AI as an unlimited engine for expansion. “You can’t grow a company just by cutting,” Trieu says. “If you have unlimited resources, you should be thinking about all the amazing things you can build.”“What It Changes Is the Level of Cognitive Power” Within the plush confines of the Hilton Nicosia ballroom, roughly a month before our interview, Trieu delivered a presentation on the automation of financial roles, a subject central to the book he authored two years back called The AI-fication of Jobs: Preparing Ourselves for the Future of Work.His inclusion felt somewhat unconventional when compared to the sober roster of bureaucrats who had gathered to commemorate CySEC’s 30th anniversary. When Trieu wrote his book, talking about AI coming for people’s jobs was taboo. How things have changed! Recently, former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt shared his thoughts on how AI is radically changing the economic landscape for the younger generation during a commencement address at the University of Arizona. “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written,” Schmidt said to general booing. In the eyes of some observers, the anxieties surrounding this new technological revolution follow a historical rhythm; we can use the past as a guide. Trieu is not among those people. The previous decade of financial technology – the fintech era – was largely about distribution. It gave us challenger banks and mobile apps that made sending money cheaper, better, and faster. It was an exercise in accessibility. AI, however, operates on a different plane.“It doesn’t help you with accessibility,” he argues. “What it changes is the level of cognitive power. Where do we have cognitive power in finance? Everywhere. Finance is a world of highly qualified people and intellectual power. Digital Intelligence is hitting that level. It’s not at the level of distribution; it is at the level of how we build financial services.” This explains the current sense of whiplash. In the space of just three years, we have moved from simple chatbots to sophisticated agentic systems that can plan and execute complex tasks with minimal oversight. For many institutions, the technology is moving too quickly for their internal structures to cope. They were simply not designed for this pace.Trieu’s presence at the CySEC anniversary gala, then, may have been more prescient than it initially appeared.Supercharged vs. Task RobotsIn this fluid landscape, Trieu observes a widening chasm between two types of professionals.On one side are the "supercharged professionals." These individuals possess a rare trinity of skills: deep domain expertise, the ability to leverage digital tools to automate their own manual tasks, and a future-proof mindset defined by independent learning and systems thinking. These are the people who can now produce in a second what used to take a day. They do not fear technology because they have absorbed it.On the other side are the "task robots." These are professionals who excel at repetitive, codified tasks. This group is in a precarious position because these are exactly the roles that artificial intelligence handles best. While anyone can learn to use an AI tool, becoming a systems thinker or a creative problem solver is far more difficult. Not every task robot will successfully leap to becoming a supercharged professional, all the while the working pool keeps shrinking. Trieu, though, stands on principle: this will continue to be a problem as long as AI is being used to optimise existing activities. “We are moving into a world of unlimited cognitive abundance. We shouldn't just think about how to do things ‘cheaper, better, faster,’" he says. The Junior BottleneckPerhaps the most troubling aspect of this revolution will be a lost generation of graduates. Getting an entry-level job has become a classic Catch-22 situation. Companies traditionally required experience, but that experience was gained through the very junior roles that are now being automated.A comprehensive study tracking the near-universe of online job vacancies found that in the year following the mainstream adoption of GenAI, the proportion of junior software developer roles dropped by over 16% relative to senior positions.It is no wonder that Schmidt was booed on the stage.So, if a graduate’s output is now less valuable than that of a basic AI agent, why would anyone hire them?Trieu is currently working with the Institute of Banking and Finance in Singapore to address this. The solution, he suggests, is a radical rethinking of the bridge between university and the first job. Singapore has launched a programme that trains graduates in applied artificial intelligence and specific financial domain knowledge before they even enter the workforce. The goal is to ensure they bring value on day one, effectively bypassing the junior phase that firms are becoming less willing to fund.The End of the Stamp CultureThis shift also necessitates a revaluation of what we call talent. For decades, the financial industry relied on a series of prestigious stamps. You went to the right university, you secured an internship at a major investment bank and you eventually became a managing director. It was a structured, predictable path.Though such a framework may endure, the number of people capable of utilising its traditional mechanics will inevitably shrink.In such a world of transition, Trieu believes the most important trait will be agency.“Before, the system helped you move along,” he says. “Now, having your own agency is vital. We need to rethink education to help people be comfortable with change and responsible for their own actions. I grew up in Vietnam, where even 50 years ago, you had to have agency just to put food on the table. In a structured system, you don't have to do that, but because we are transitioning, we have to spend more time on it.”There have been clumsy attempts to measure performance in this new era. Some have tried "tokenmaxing," a system where employees were evaluated based on how much they used AI tools. Predictably, employees quickly learned to game the system, proving that you cannot force innovation through crude metrics.We've been tokenmaxxing longer than most people https://t.co/0tPLRkP9g4— Garry Tan (@garrytan) April 7, 2026The Driver’s SeatFor companies to survive this transition, they must abandon the bureaucratic red tape of the past. The traditional five-year plan is an exercise in futility when the underlying technology changes every six months. Instead of committees, firms need talent density. “It will be painful because you have to rethink the organisation, but it’s about creating the people who create the future. Once you start to build talent density, things can happen quickly. You don’t have to start by changing 100,000 people; you start with a few who then influence the whole organisation,” he says. There is a version of the future that looks like a utopia. It is a world of collective abundance where the scarcity of education, financial literacy and even basic services is solved by unlimited cognitive power.Yet, whether such a vision materialises remains secondary to the current reality; for now, the primary catalysts of this transformation are sequestered within Silicon Valley. And Trieu warns that remaining in the passenger seat will inevitably lead to whatever destination others will choose. “If we get in the driver's seat and use this unlimited power, yes, we can do it,” he says. This article was written by Adonis Adoni at www.financemagnates.com.