JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said artificial intelligence shouldn't be a part of the technology org since it impacts all of the business. Dimon also gave his take on data, cybersecurity, management and technology shifts.

Speaking at the Databricks Data + AI Summit, Dimon in an interview with CEO Ali Ghodsi said:

"We took AI and data out of technology. It's too important and technology does a great job and a deep partner. But we put AI at that management table. Dr. Manuela Veloso, Head of JP Morgan Chase AI Research reports to me and our president. Are we doing enough? Are we doing it right? There will be no job, no process, no function that won't be affected by AI--mostly for the positive. It's about getting all of the people who run these businesses to understand the power of it."

JPMorgan Chase has an $18 billion IT budget and Dimon added that data is everything. "We buy and sell 3 trillion of securities every day," said Dimon.

Dimon said the head of AI is at every single meeting he has with management teams so the bank can stay on top of things. "We have investments in 100 different companies out here. We're testing and learning," he said.

The results so far have been impressive.

Other takeaways from Dimon's talk:

Starting in AI. "In 2012, we first used Palantir. And I remember sitting down with the Palantir people and going through this AI thing, saying, Holy Christ. This is unbelievable. So we, right after that, start our own department. In 2014, we hired Veloso from Carnegie Mellon. We now have 600 actual end use case and that number will probably double next year."

The data foundation. JPMorgan Chase's Dimon, a long-time Databricks customer, said the data foundation is critical. "Data is the hardest part. It isn't the AI or machine learning," said Dimon. "Getting the data in the form that's usable is the hard part."

AI isn't deflationary yet. Dimon said JPMorgan Chase is spending $2 billion on AI and getting returns, but it's too early to say AI is deflationary.

"The chips are getting faster and cheaper, and maybe optical chips to get better down the road. But power costs aren't going down. The cost of land isn't going down. The cost of structures isn't going down. You know, the cost of inferencing is dropping dramatically, and you guys will find a million ways reduce costs. My own view is, in the next couple of years, we're gonna be spending a lot more money. We need more lumber and more cement and more steel and more grids and more gas plants. We will be deflationary, just not quite yet."

Technology shifts. Dimon said technology has always changed humanity. "I've always had technology at the table and part of the management team. The tech people have to be business literate. They have to understand your problems," said Dimon. "Business people need to be tech literate. I don't have to understand how lithium battery works. I don't have to understand exactly how your super agents work. I have to understand what they can do so I can deploy it. I tell people we're going to be the best at AI--large models, small models, this cloud, that cloud. Just use the technology to do a better job or you'll be left behind."

Cybersecurity. Dimon said cybersecurity is "the thing that scares me the most." "People are now using agents to try to penetrate major companies," said Dimon. "The bad guys are already using AI and agents. The cyber warfare is here in our computers, skies, satellites and wireless. I don't think a lot of Americans realize."

Dimon added that cybersecurity is a public-private partnership.

"We often inform the government before they know what's going on with certain things about North Koreans or Chinese actors out there. I remember President Obama asked me years ago, what do I do if a bank went down. I said you should have to have a bank holiday. You would have no choice, but to try to recover the data. We all have backed up data and all the things like that. But if I had to tell you all how many times the failsafe systems didn't work in my life, it would be almost every time. It didn't always anticipate what caused the problem and maybe AI will help us do a better job of that."

Management. Dimon was an early mover on return to office planning and walked through his approach to managing and the goals of having people in person at the office. A few quotes:

  • "You have to go out of your way to get the best of people. And it's amazing what it does for a country, university and a company."
  • "You should fire the assholes. It only takes a few of them to destroy a meeting, and sometimes those assholes are customers. I have fired customers because they're just so rude to our people."
  • "You gotta have a little bit of grit. It's hard. You know, these jobs are hard. You have to, you know, the answers to problems found. So my general reaction when something's going wrong, I get all the people the room, we work it over and over and over and over. I'm not guessing. And usually the answer is found."
  • "It's hard to do management by Hollywood Squares, because I can have real honest conversation with you. I'm sitting in front of you. I didn't realize that people are looking at their phones rather doing you. If your notifications are coming up, your emails are coming up, you're not paying attention. You know, when you're with me, you get 100% of my attention. 100% of the time I've done the whole pre read. You have to have certain disciplines, or you lose. It's how management teams have to work."

A presidential run? "I'd get all the rich white people to vote for me, but I am a banker. I'm 69 and I always say I would love to be president, but you have to anoint me. I've never run for office. I don't have that skill. Now maybe if you tell me what to do, what to say, and where to go, but I've never done that, so I think the answer is no. I will do anything to help the country," said Dimon.

 

Business Research Themes

Data to Decisions, Future of Work, New C-Suite

Roles

Chief Information Officer, Chief Executive Officer

Tags

Artificial Intelligence (AI), data