Blankfein likes to say Goldman is more of a technology firm than a financial one.

After helping to eliminate hundreds of trading jobs over the past few years technology whizzes are focusing on Goldman Sachs’ flagship M&A business. A team of 75 programmers – aka "strats" - has been developing technology to make Goldman's elite dealmakers more productive. That team within investment banking has doubled in size since 2014, when long time tech banker George Lee was appointed CIO for investment banking.

Programmers are now supporting those handling equity underwriting, LBO’s and deals within the financial services and real estate sectors. They’re also analyzing client data to offer better advice on deal targets and types of actions that might please a particular company’s investor base.

• Conventional wisdom holds that investment banking does not yield itself to automation the way trading does, because it relies so much on personal relationships forged over years of business lunches, rounds of golf and boardroom presentations.

• Goldman executives say technology aims to reduce the grunt-work junior bankers now perform, so they can spend more time helping top dealmakers rake in more money.

• But some who joined Goldman in recent years expecting to advance from supporting cast to lead roles on big deals are wondering whether technology will be their friend or foe.

• One employee who asked not to be named said investment bank staff are looking at how trading got automated, and wondering if the same fate awaits them. 

• Worries have been exacerbated by weak business and broader job cuts across the industry.

"Banking used to be an area where the top undergrads and MBAs wanted jobs, but now so much of those roles are automatable." - - Tom Davenport, Babson College Professor of IT and Management.

It’s estimated that advances in technology could thin the ranks of low-level staff at Goldman as much as 10% in the next few years. [Is that all? Only time will tell.]

As Blankfein likes to say, Goldman is more of a technology firm than a financial one, even though dealmakers and traders have led the bank for its entire 148-year history.