The Workforce AI Index · Financial Services
Morgan Stanley (MS)
Investment bank and wealth manager, one pattern. Read October 1, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-19. Ranked 13 of the 15 Financial Services companies read so far, by the share within reach now: the sector.
The filing states about 83 thousand employees by region and nothing by segment, and its three segments are all securities and investment work, so one pattern carries the workforce (c).
The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
What follows from the reading
Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 34% now, 61% at the end of 2027, 71% at the end of 2028, 74% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 74% desk work, 23% people work and 3% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 26% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 63% becomes checking a model's work and 7% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
83,000 employees as of 2025-12-31 (stated). The filing counts employees by geography, 54 thousand in the Americas, 19 thousand in Asia and 10 thousand in EMEA; no U.S. count on its own.
The filing: “As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 83 thousand employees across 42 countries, whom we depend upon to drive the value Morgan Stanley delivers to our clients and shareholders worldwide.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities | 100% | By revenue (c): Institutional Securities at 46%, Wealth Management at 44% and Investment Management at 9% of revenue are all securities, brokerage and investment work, with no count by segment. |
What the filing says about the workforce: About 83 thousand employees in 42 countries: 54 thousand Americas, 19 thousand Asia, 10 thousand EMEA; 40% women; voluntary attrition 9% in 2025; average length of service 7 years; the collector's first figure of 100,001 was a pay threshold, not a headcount.
Companies read with the same leading pattern
Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (BAM, 5,800 employees)34% now, 71% by 2028
What the filing says about AI
11 sentences in the filing name AI. The filing names AI in 11 sentences: generative AI and tokenization among the technologies pressuring trading revenues, and AI among its competitive and risk factors.
- “Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation: the effect of market conditions, particularly in the global equity, fixed income, currency, credit and commodities markets, including corporate, commercial and residential mortgage lending, real estate and energy markets; the level of individual investor particip...”
- “In particular, the ability to execute securities, derivatives and other financial instrument trades electronically on exchanges, swap execution facilities and other automated trading platforms, and the introduction and application of new technologies, including generative artificial intelligence and tokenization, will likely continue the pressure on our revenues.”
- “Our Wealth Management business segment is primarily in the U.S., and our ability to effectively compete against many of 5 December 2025 Form 10-K Table of Contents our competitors across different channels (i.e., advisor led, workplace and digital direct) is affected by multiple factors including our brand and reputation, the breadth, depth and pricing of our product offerings and our technolog...”
- “This may include a disruption involving physical site access; software flaws and vulnerabilities; cybersecurity incidents; terrorist activities; political unrest; disease pandemics; catastrophic events; climate-related incidents and natural disasters (such as earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and wildfires); electrical outages; environmental hazards; computer servers; internet outages;...”
- “Cybersecurity risks for financial institutions have significantly increased in recent years, in part because of the proliferation of new technologies; the use of the internet, mobile telecommunications and cloud technologies to conduct financial transactions; the use of artificial intelligence and the emergence of quantum computing; and the increased sophistication and activities of organized c...”
Headcount by filing year
As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.
| Period | Employees | Filed | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 83,000 | 2026-02-19 | 10-K |
| 2024-12-31 | 80,000 | 2025-02-21 | 10-K |
| 2023-12-31 | 80,000 | 2024-02-22 | 10-K |
| 2022-12-31 | 82,000 | 2023-02-24 | 10-K |
| 2021-12-31 | 75,000 | 2022-02-24 | 10-K |
Limits of this reading
- The filing counts no people by segment; the single pattern rests on segment revenue and description (c).
- The U.S. share is not stated.
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0000895421-26-000086, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Questions about this company
- How much of Morgan Stanley's working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 34% now and 71% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce Morgan Stanley's own annual report describes and BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. It is an estimate with a stated method. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings, and it says nothing about what the company will do.
- How many people does Morgan Stanley employ?
- 83,000 as of December 31, 2025, as its annual report for the period ending December 31, 2025 states.
- What kinds of work make up Morgan Stanley's workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 1 industry staffing pattern, the largest Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities; by those patterns the work is about 74% desk work, 23% people work and 3% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does Morgan Stanley's annual report say about AI?
- 11 sentences in the filing name AI. They are counted and quoted on this page, never judged: a count says how much a filing talks about AI, not what the company does with it.
- How is this estimated?
- Claude Fable 5.1 read the annual report under the Index's written rubric (version 1) on October 1, 2026: the stated headcount, the share in the U.S. when stated, and the workforce as a blend of industry staffing patterns. The estimates are the site's industry estimates weighted by those shares, from O*NET tasks with estimated lengths and METR's measurements of how long a task AI models can finish. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.