2026 New Grad-Business Strategy and Growth Rotational Analyst

AI reshaping Charlotte's white-collar workforce. The state's financial hub faces disruption. CHARLOTTE - Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from buzzword to business strategy across Charlotte's corporate landscape, prompting layoffs, new investments and growing questions about how technology will reshape the region's white-collar workforce. Recent announcements from several companies illustrate the shift. In February, Fort Mill-based LPL Financial said it would cut about 300 positions from its workforce of roughly 10,000 employees nationwide as part of efforts to streamline operations. Around the same time, Charlotte-based LendingTree announced layoffs affecting 24 employees while redirecting investment toward artificial intelligence tools designed to improve efficiency and automate certain tasks. Large financial institutions with a significant footprint in Charlotte are also embracing the technology. Bank of America and Wells Fargo have both pointed to artificial intelligence as a key driver of productivity gains, often describing workforce reductions as the result of attrition combined with automation and digital tools. Across industries, artificial intelligence has become a central topic of conversation among executives and employees alike. Businesses see potential for faster analysis, streamlined workflows and new ways to manage large volumes of information. For workers, however, the rise of AI is creating a mix of curiosity and concern. Employees are increasingly encountering new terminology - from "prompt engineering" to "AI hallucinations" - as they learn how the technology works and how it may alter their day-to-day responsibilities. Charlotte's economy makes the city particularly sensitive to those changes. Although the region has diversified beyond banking in recent decades, financial services remain a major pillar of the local economy. The Charlotte metro area supports more than 1.4 million jobs overall, including about 127,000 positions in finance. Another 236,000 workers are employed in business and professional services - a category that includes legal, accounting and architectural fields - while about 70,000 work in technology-related roles. Those office-based sectors are widely considered among the most vulnerable to automation. A recent study by Tufts University examining the geographic distribution of jobs susceptible to artificial intelligence ranked Charlotte 41st among 530 U.S. metropolitan areas by potential exposure to AI-related job losses. Researchers estimated about 6.57% of jobs in the Charlotte area - roughly 86,000 positions - could be affected. Other North Carolina metro areas ranked higher. Durham-Chapel Hill placed fourth nationally, with 8.94% of jobs considered vulnerable, while Raleigh-Cary ranked 14th at 7.65%. Many of the occupations identified as most exposed involve knowledge-based work, particularly in technology fields. Computer programmers, web designers and developers were among the jobs researchers said face higher levels of risk from automation.

AI could spark next wave of advisor fee compression, consultants say. by Cheryl Winokur Munk April 10, 2026 While the industry debates whether AI will replace advisors, many expect it could affect a core pillar of their practice: pricing. As AI tools increasingly replicate elements of financial planning and portfolio analysis, many could face mounting pressure on both pricing and payouts for advisors who mainly focus on these areas, according to industry executives and consultants. The effects may be acute for those who have sought to shift to financial planning, a trend that firms have encouraged over the past decade to help move clients to advisory accounts. "AI creates commoditization around financial planning," said Eric Sontag, president of Manhattan-based Wealthspire Advisors. "AI will push advisors to continue to evolve in terms of upping the breadth of services they provide." The average asset-based advisory fee ranges from 125 basis points for a client with $100,000 in investable assets to 67 basis points for a client with $10 million, according to a 2025 report from Cerulli Associates. But clients are becoming more sensitive to costs, and the technology is advancing quickly. It has already pressured company stock prices, and earlier this month OpenAI released its most advanced model, GPT-5.4, which it says is "ideal for financial reasoning and Excel-based modeling." Competitor Anthropic recently launched wealth-management-specific plugins for its large language model, Claude, and partnered with independent brokerage giant LPL Financial. Morgan Stanley Co-President Dan Simkowitz said at an industry conference that AI would not replace advisors but had made them more productive with tax planning and account analysis. RIA custodian Altruist has also entered the market with Hazel, an AI platform that allows advisors to pull from conversations, emails, documents and CRM systems to answer questions and prepare advisors for client interactions. While these tools are aimed at advisors, consultants expect similar capabilities to become widely available to investors, echoing earlier waves such as discount brokerage and robo-advisors that lowered the cost of investing and led to zero-commission trading. In the near term, that should improve client service, said Chip Roame, founder of Tiburon Strategic Advisors. "The emergence of AI is a win for clients and financial advisors," Roame wrote in an email. "Financial advisors will continue to delegate more tasks to technology and focus their newly free time on adding more value for clients." Advisors may experience "added fee pressure, as AI continues to mature and potentially fills more aspects of what advisors are generally incredibly good at," Joseph Agostinelli, senior director of market research at Morningstar, wrote in an email. Morningstar data show 56% of advisors expect generative AI to have a meaningful impact on the industry, up from 44% a year earlier. Advisors cited free or low-cost alternatives, including AI, as the second-largest threat to revenue, behind competition from other firms. Still, many advisors see AI as a tool to improve efficiency rather than replace human relationships. AI can operate in the background, assisting with meeting preparation, communications and workflow, said James Spinelli, chief executive of Great Valley Advisor Group in Berwyn, Pa. Tools such as Hazel can summarize activity, draft client emails and compile relevant account information ahead of meetings. "With AI, you still have to interpret the information," Spinelli said. Savvy Wealth CEO Ritik Malhotra said at an industry conference that AI could allow advisors to spend more time prospecting and serving clients while reducing back-office work. He added that the technology may enable a single advisor to handle $1 billion or more in client assets. "AI is certainly a powerful resource, but investors remain largely unimpressed with digital advice in general," said Scott Smith, senior director of advice relationships at Cerulli, in an email. The company's research shows 85% of affluent investors say working with a human advisor is important.

LPL Financial has received a Buy rating from UBS with a $380 price target, despite the stock falling 12% year-to-date. The wealth management firm's shares currently trade near $315. UBS's target is more conservative than the Street's $429 average across 15 brokerages. The rating comes as LPL Financial demonstrates strong operational momentum, with total advisory and brokerage assets reaching $2.4 trillion in Q4 2025, up 36% year-over-year. The company's Commonwealth Financial Network acquisition, which closed in Q3 2025, added approximately 3,000 advisers and $275 billion in assets. Advisory revenue surged 59% year-over-year to $2.54 billion in Q4. However, the company carries $7.3 billion in debt from acquisition financing, with full platform integration expected in Q4 2026.