Finance Seminar Jean-Edouard Colliard

In this week’s Finance Seminar, Jean-Edouard Colliard from HEC Paris presented “Artificial Intelligence and the Rents of Finance Workers”, coauthored with Junli Zhao (Bayes Business School).

The paper challenges the classic “AI replaces humans” narrative. Instead, it shows that when financiers must incentivize workers whose pay depends on project success, AI can actually raise both compensation and labor demand.

As smarter machines boost the probability of success, finance professionals benefit through higher “free-riding” rents, earning more even without extra effort. The study also reveals a capital reallocation effect, shifting investment toward financiers depending on which tasks AI improves.

Takeaway: In finance, automation doesn’t just substitute human expertise. It can amplify human rents and reshape who captures value in the age of AI.