How AI is redefining Wall Street jobs — and boosting demand for this new 'hottest skill' by 1,721%

A person walks around the JPMorgan Chase & Co. headquarters in New York, Feb. 17, 2026.Zamek | View Press | Corbis News | Getty ImagesBefore artificial intelligence can take Wall Street jobs, it is first creating them.Posts for AI-related roles at banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Capital One surged 49% this year compared with 2025 to 139,819 listings, according to an analysis by enterprise hiring data firm Draup that was provided exclusively to CNBC. The fastest-growing area is a cluster of skills involving AI agents, according to Draup, which culls data from public job posts and platforms including LinkedIn. For instance, references to agent orchestration, or the ability to design agents that work in concert on a task, jumped 1,721% this year."This is arguably the hottest skill on Wall Street," Draup CEO Vijay Swaminathan said in an interview. "It's a massive opportunity. They need people who understand data and people who understand AI and where to put it."The job listings show that Wall Street banks are moving beyond chatbots to the next phase of their AI strategy, one that has implications for executives, employees and shareholders. To make good on AI's promise...