Innovation May 2026 Digital Bytes

The workforce gap that could break financial services

Most of the debate about AI in financial services is still focused on what it replaces. That is the wrong conversation. AI agents, tokenisation, and the missing talent layer - and why the workforce planning question belongs at board level now.

Author: Declan Sheehy

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This article was published by Digital Bytes, Jonny Fry's newsletter for financial services practitioners, in May 2026. It covers the structural workforce challenge that sits underneath the AI and tokenisation transition, and why the gap between what firms know they should be doing and what they can actually deliver is wider than most boards have acknowledged.

The infographic below captures the key statistics. The full article is on the Digital Bytes website.

The workforce gap that could break financial services - 35pp AI skills gap, 170m new roles by 2030, 92m displaced, 39% core skills obsolete. AI agents, tokenisation, regulatory accountability, the missing talent layer.
Read the full article on Digital Bytes