Morgan Stanley intern survey: How they use AI and what they think about it taking over their jobs

Artificial intelligence has been the buzzword on Wall Street for a while now, and a recent survey of Wall Street interns gives a peek into just how popular and useful it is for the industry’s youngest cohort.

More than 500 of Morgan Stanley‘s 2025 North American summer intern class weighed in on everything from their favorite retail brands to healthcare and technology. One section of the survey focused on the ways they’re using AI tools.

It reveals interns’ habits and thoughts around the platforms, including exactly how often they’re using it — the number of interns using AI on a daily basis doubled over last year, for example. It reports which chatbot is most popular among interns (yes, there’s one clear winner), along with what they use it for most and what tasks they think it’s most helpful for.

Interns also said what they’re most skeptical about, and voted on how worried they are about it taking over finance jobs.

This is the seventh year that the bank’s equity research team has tracked its summer interns’ perspectives and the third year it has asked them about AI. Most of the respondents — about 70% — were 21 years old or younger, and, the report said, represent the “next generation of innovators, disrupters, and decision-makers who will define the future of industry.”

Here’s how these Wall Street interns are using and thinking about AI right now.

Interns are using AI a lot

About 96% of Morgan Stanley’s survey respondents said they use some kind of AI tool at least occasionally, which is up from 75% two years ago. When asked exactly how often interns use AI tools, most said either daily (35%) or several times a week (42%).

ChatGPT is their favorite tool by far — 72% of Morgan Stanley’s interns said they use it daily or several times a week, far outpacing similar chats like Claude, Gemini, and Copilot.

Most have paid AI subscriptions

More than half of the Morgan Stanley interns (52%) reported personally subscribing to the paid version of an AI tool. About 48% said they have paid for ChatGPT, reiterating the tool’s popularity.

They use AI for work tasks — but also in their personal lives

In one part of the survey, interns were asked how and what they use ChatGPT for. The most common uses were work-related. About 79% of interns said they use it to learn about a new topic and summarize long pieces of text. The other most common usages of the tool are drafting/editing emails or other texts (74%) and writing, programming, or debugging code (56%).

Many interns also use ChatGPT for personal tasks: About 45% said they ask it for personal advice and help planning a vacation. About 36% use it to find recipes and 34% ask it for medical information. Just under 20% use it to compare prices and shop for products.

Many are worried about AI taking finance jobs

About 58% of Morgan Stanley interns reported feeling either somewhat concerned (41%) or very concerned (17%) that AI could replace jobs on Wall Street.

Most only expect their own utilization of the tools to go up from here. About 78% said they expect their usage of AI tools and platforms to increase, either significantly (39%) or slightly (39%).

They think AI saves time

Most interns completely agreed that AI saves them time (69%), is easy to use (63%), and is useful in daily life (54%). Notably, about 46% completely agreed that it has reduced their use of browser search bars.

They’re concerned about what AI produces

Despite their high usage of AI and agreement that it’s useful, a lot of the interns (48%) said they are very concerned about the misinformation and accuracy in AI. Another 39% said they are somewhat concerned about it.

Their second highest concern is the way AI may use their personal data and information — 35% are very concerned about this, and 34% are somewhat concerned.

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