Good morning. Goldman Sachs is betting big on using AI to fundamentally rethink how business operates.
At Goldman Sachs’ U.S. Financial Services Conference on Tuesday, CFO Denis Coleman discussed the company’s recently announced OneGS 3.0 initiative, a multi-year overhaul of its OneGS program aimed at integrating AI throughout the bank’s operating model to reduce complexity and increase productivity. The effort is a top priority and will involve all divisions and functions of the company, from lines of business to control functions to engineering, Coleman said. “At its core, this is an effort to generate more scale and more growth,” he said.
Goldman Sachs (No. 32 in the Fortune 500) emphasizes the quality, availability, accuracy and timeliness of data that underpins all of its AI initiatives, Coleman noted. This priority includes ensuring the company properly invests in shared platforms across the organization.
“We’re asking all of our people to rethink the human processes they go through,” Coleman said. “And then we invest in AI and agentic AI to accelerate change in those processes and platforms.”
They identified six distinct work streams, created dedicated teams and tasked them with reviewing key activities, analyzing weaknesses and identifying opportunities for efficiencies, he said. Each group will then present formal investment cases for executive review.
“We will fund some of these investments and hold teams accountable for the resulting productivity results,” Coleman said. “This is a fundamental overhaul of how we expect our people to operate at Goldman Sachs.”
He added: “We don’t want to just 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 said he is optimistic that the OneGS 3.0 strategy will help fuel the company’s continued growth.
“The talent bar remains high”
During the discussion, Coleman also touched on the talent environment, a top concern for many CFOs. “We continue to see incredible demand for people wanting to come work at Goldman Sachs, with over a million people asking to move lateral within the firm,” Coleman said. “We can accommodate well under 1%, so we are still able to be extremely selective about who we hire.”
Goldman Sachs cut its workforce earlier in 2025 as part of its annual performance review process, which typically targets the bottom 3% to 5% of employees. The company postponed this process to the second quarter, compared to the usual September schedule. Despite these reductions, Goldman still expects a net increase in headcount by the end of 2025, supported by hiring in key growth areas.
“The talent bar remains very high,” Coleman said. “We continue to operate as a pay-for-performance organization. Our goal is to pay competitively, particularly for our top performers in each area, and we are focused on that.”
He added: “As long as markets remain buoyant and the outlook remains optimistic, maintaining this focus will be essential. »
Regarding the U.S. economic outlook, Coleman called it “resilient and good for business.” He added: “We obviously have a Fed decision coming. Our economists expect a 25 basis point cut, probably followed by a pause in early 2026, and then possibly two more cuts.” Coleman also noted that 2025 is shaping up to be the second biggest year in history in terms of mergers and acquisitions announced across the industry.
SherylEstrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
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Fortune 500 Power Moves
Kathryn A. Mikellssenior vice president and chief financial officer of Exxon Mobil (No. 8), will retire on February 1, 2026. Mikells, who underwent multiple procedures to address a debilitating but non-life-threatening health issue, is resigning to focus on his recovery, according to an SEC filing.
Mikells is among the CFOs represented on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list for 2025. She joined Exxon Mobil in 2021. Mikells is the company’s first official CFO; before his appointment, financial functions were shared between several management positions. Mikells is the first woman to join Exxon Mobil’s executive committee.
On December 8, Exxon Mobil named Neil A. Hansen51 years old, like his successor. Hansen has served as president of Exxon Mobil Global Business Solutions since May 2025 and previously held leadership roles in the company’s Energy Products, Fuels Europe, Africa and Middle East businesses, as well as the company’s controllers, audit, treasury and investor relations departments, including vice president of investor relations and corporate secretary.
Like other company executives, Hansen will not have an employment contract. His annual salary will be $1.02 million and he remains eligible for performance-based bonuses and long-term equity incentives.
Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column follows leadership changes at Fortune 500 companies:see the most recent edition.
More notable movements
Jeff Chestnut was appointed financial director of Conestoga Energyprovider of low carbon intensity, with immediate effect. With over 25 years of experience in strategic planning, capital markets and finance, Chesnut will play a central role in executing Conestoga’s growth strategy. Prior to joining Conestoga, Chesnut served as Senior Vice President of Treasury, Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Upbound Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: UPBD). Prior to that, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of publicly traded Loyalty Ventures Inc., which was a spin-off from publicly traded Alliance Data Systems, Inc. (now Bread Financial), where he spent more than a decade.
James Robert “Rob” Foster was promoted to senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer of ATI Inc. (NYSE: ATI), effective January 1. Foster succeeds Don Newman, who will serve as strategic advisor to the CEO effective January 1. As previously announced, Newman will retire on March 1, 2026 and will serve in an advisory capacity. Foster, a longtime ATI executive, most recently served as president of ATI’s alloys and specialty components business. He previously served as vice president of finance, supply chain and capital projects at ATI, overseeing the company’s global financial organization, capital deployment processes and company supply chain performance. Previously, he led finance for ATI’s operating segments and forged products business.
Big deal
The 11th edition Women in the Workplace Reportpublished by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org, examines the situation of women in American and Canadian companies. This year, only half of companies are prioritizing the career advancement of women, a continuation of a years-long decline in commitment to gender diversity. For the first time, women are less interested than men in getting promoted.
One of the main conclusions is that sponsorship is important. “Overall, women are less likely than men to have a sponsor – and female starters stand out in receiving significantly less sponsorship than any other group of women or men,” according to the report. “Even when entry-level women have a sponsor, they are promoted at a lower rate than men. Sponsors have a substantial impact on career outcomes: over the past two years, employees with a sponsor were promoted at a rate nearly twice as high as those without one.”
Go deeper
Heard
“I think over the next five years, large parts of factory work will be replaced by robots, and part of the reason is that these physical AI robots can be reprogrammed for different tasks.”
—said Arm CEO René Haas on Monday at Fortune Brainstorm AI in San Francisco.
