Goldman Sachs Limits AI Coding Tools to Engineers, Cutting Off Most Traders and Bankers
Internal guidance updated in October restricts Claude Code and Microsoft's GitHub tools after a productivity and risk review, Bloomberg News reports.
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Goldman Sachs has barred most of its traders and bankers from using Anthropic's Claude Code and Microsoft's GitHub AI coding tools, limiting them to engineers, Bloomberg News reported on November 2. The change follows a review of productivity and risk concerns.
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Bloomberg said the restriction comes from internal guidance updated in October, which it has seen. For months before that, Goldman had allowed bankers to use the tools at work.
The change at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tools | Anthropic's Claude Code, Microsoft's GitHub |
| Who keeps access | Engineers; "strats" are exempt |
| Who loses it | Most traders and bankers |
| When | Internal guidance updated in October |
| Stated reason | Review of productivity and risk |
Sources: Bloomberg News, as relayed by Quartz and PYMNTS.
Who is affected
The guidance does not cover "strats," Goldman employees whose jobs combine software engineering, quantitative research and trading, according to Bloomberg as reported by Quartz.
Some traders were frustrated by the change, Bloomberg reported. They had used the tools to monitor client trading flows, model market and position changes, and produce text and graphics, according to Quartz's account.
What Goldman says
Goldman spokesperson Nick Carcaterra framed the move as the end of a trial period. "We make certain AI tools available to our people to determine the best use cases across different parts of the firm." he said, according to Bloomberg as quoted by Quartz and PYMNTS.
"After a period of experimentation where we assess a variety of factors including productivity and risk management, we put them in the hands of those who are best suited to leverage them for the long term."
Neither the statement nor the reports give data on the productivity or risk findings behind the decision.
A shift from July
The restriction marks a turn from earlier messaging. In July, Goldman Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti spoke favorably of "vibe coding" by employees outside technical roles, including traders and bankers, according to Bloomberg as relayed by Quartz.
Argenti said those employees used AI to build their own solutions, then handed the results to one of the bank's 12,000 engineers to polish, PYMNTS reported.
Goldman has limited AI tools before. Earlier this year it restricted staff in Hong Kong from using Anthropic's Claude, according to Bloomberg as relayed by Quartz.
Why it matters
For companies rolling out AI coding agents, Goldman's move shows that wide early access may not last. The bank treated broad use as an experiment, then narrowed it to the roles it judged best suited.
That choice matters because coding agents can write and run software, which raises different risks from a chat assistant. In a regulated bank, those risks fall heavily on staff who are not trained engineers.
It also shows a tension. Tools that let non-engineers build their own software were praised as a productivity win in July. By October, the bank had decided that role should belong mainly to engineers.
What to watch
- Other banks. Whether peers adopt similar role-based limits on coding agents.
- Goldman's details. Any explanation of the specific risks or productivity data behind the change.
- Vendor response. How Anthropic and Microsoft position enterprise controls for non-engineering users.
More coverage is on our Artificial Intelligence hub.
How we reported this
Bloomberg's article is paywalled after its opening paragraphs, so details beyond those were checked against Quartz's and PYMNTS's accounts of Bloomberg's reporting, and are attributed accordingly. Goldman's spokesperson statement appears in both. We did not see the internal guidance.
Published and fact-checked November 2, 2026.
Sources
- Bloomberg News, Todd Gillespie, "Goldman Restricts Traders and Bankers From Using Some AI Tools," Nov. 2, 2026: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/capital-markets/goldman-restricts-traders-and-bankers-from-using-some-ai-tools
- Quartz, Nov. 2, 2026: https://qz.com/goldman-sachs-restricts-ai-coding-tools-traders-bankers-110226
- PYMNTS, Nov. 2, 2026: https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/goldman-sachs-bars-bankers-from-employing-some-ai-tools/
DailyMech used AI tools to help research and draft this article; it was fact-checked by our editors.