Here’s how the Bloomberg Terminal is integrating AI to automate tasks for traders and analysts

• Bloomberg recently rolled out a new AI tool on the terminal’s instant messenger.
• The data giant has been using AI to help traders and analysts automate tasks and better use data.
• Mark Flatman, global head of core product at Bloomberg, explains how it works.

Bloomberg is updating its terminal, a ubiquitous piece of technology that traders and analysts use to access the massive amounts of data that power Wall Street.

The company has been investing in AI to automate tasks for its terminal users, making it easier for them to sort through the mountains of data at their disposal. It has updated its widely used messenger Instant Bloomberg (IB) to automatically suggest relevant research, order forms, or pricing quotes when a user messages keywords such as “pricing,” “research,” or “order information.”

“Recently, we concentrated our efforts on the actual work of the analysts. Not only do they need content, but they also need to know how to do their jobs,” Mark Flatman, Bloomberg’s global head of core product, told Insider. According to him, the data giant has invested in tools that allow analysts to collaborate with their colleagues and change how they access and use data.

The recent data explosion has forever altered the way financial firms operate, from fundamentally altering how hedge funds build internal technology to how sell-side firms share data with buy-side clients, and even driving cultural transformation. Accommodating this nearly infinite universe of data has resulted in the rise of analytics platforms and cloud tools to assist users in parsing the data. However, such data can be difficult to access in day-to-day workflows, let alone realize it exists.

Bloomberg’s AI push comes as Wall Street continues to experiment and invest in the technology, which has the potential to transform jobs ranging from wealth management to investment banking. According to CNBC, Bloomberg announced the launch of its own financial-services-focused version of ChatGPT in March, which could soon make its way onto the terminal. Meanwhile, major financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citibank are cracking down on employees’ use of ChatGPT, citing regulatory concerns.

Automating IB and simplifying the user experience

Bloomberg upgraded its AI capabilities within IB this spring. When two people are messaging, the AI will recognize when a specific security is mentioned and will automatically search internal databases for relevant information about it. Any relevant data or digitized order forms appear in the chat window, along with next steps or useful information.

Assume a buy-side investor was discussing Disney bonds with a sell-side trader. The terminal IB would recognize the term “Disney bond” and notify the trader that their firm had produced relevant research that they could share with the investor. The trader could choose whether or not to share that information. The AI could have also used the bank’s pricing engine to inform the trader that they have Disney bonds in their inventory and could quote a price.

“So you’ve done some research, you’ve got a quote, and it just kind of happened while we were talking by the chat,” Flatman explained.

Bloomberg’s main goal with this automation is to reduce the need for terminal users to switch between different applications, allowing users to move faster and sometimes with fewer errors due to manual re-typing.

Bloomberg goes all-in on AI

Bloomberg has been expanding its data empire, from investing in artificial intelligence to making alternative data more widely available. The ability to search for and discover data has become critical to its users’ workflows.

Another area in which they are investing resources is in a service called IB feed, which is a real-time feed of a company’s internal IB content, including AI-detected securities, as well as additional information about the security, such as whether it was for an inquiry, a direct buy order or sell order, and the size of the order. Flatman believes that some of the information from the IB feed could be extracted and used by banks and hedge funds to analyze trends based on their own employees’ IB chats, profile their clients, and better understand employee behavior.

“In general, large institutions are interested in that because they have the technical capability to do something with a feed like that.” They can begin feeding that information into their own CRM systems. They can start thinking about it in terms of better profiling their customers and their behaviors,” Flatman said. He added that the capability is still in the proof-of-concept stage, primarily with sell-side firms but also with some buy-side clients.