Goldman Sachs Adds Agentic AI Engineers to Triple Software Development Efficiency

Goldman Sachs employs about 12,000 software developers and faces the costly, tightly regulated task of modernizing sprawling legacy systems. Its adoption of Cognition’s Devin and agentic systems powered by models including Anthropic’s Claude marks a shift beyond code completion: virtual engineers can plan assignments, write and test code, and submit Pull Requests for review. Human engineers retain oversight, making the initiative a test of hybrid development rather than full automation.

In comments reported on July 11, 2025, Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti said Goldman would initially deploy hundreds of Devin instances, with the fleet potentially expanding into the thousands; no contract value was disclosed. He said agentic tools could deliver three to four times the productivity impact of earlier AI assistants. Trials have also shortened vulnerability-remediation work and improved Pull Request acceptance, though Goldman released no figures for those measures, while broader adoption has fueled concern over entry-level engineering jobs.