Can Agents Work?

Jobs / Finance and accounting / 13-2099.01

Financial Quantitative Analysts

Develop quantitative techniques to inform securities investing, equities investing, pricing, or valuation of financial instruments. Develop mathematical or statistical models for risk management, asset optimization, pricing, or relative value analysis.

US jobs
132,130 (SOC 13-2099 group, "Financial Specialists, All Other")
Median wage
$81,100 a year
Job family
Finance and accounting

Can agents do the work of financial quantitative analysts?

We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Finance and accounting:

  • Task levelPartialOn Vals AI's Finance Agent benchmark, where agents research SEC filings to answer an analyst's questions, the best model scores 64.4%. Adjacent spreadsheet tasks score higher (83.1% on SpreadsheetBench). No task-level benchmark in our collection tests bookkeeping or audit work inside accounting systems.
  • Project levelPartialOn APEX-Agents, which includes investment-banking tasks written by professionals, the best agent passes 73.5% of tasks on the first try (all domains). OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's GDPval deliverables, from occupations that include accountants and financial managers, won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons.

Benchmarks for the job family

These cover work in finance and accounting, not always this occupation's tasks.

Typical tasks

From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.

  • Apply mathematical or statistical techniques to address practical issues in finance, such as derivative valuation, securities trading, risk management, or financial market regulation.
  • Research or develop analytical tools to address issues such as portfolio construction or optimization, performance measurement, attribution, profit and loss measurement, or pricing models.
  • Interpret results of financial analysis procedures.
  • Develop core analytical capabilities or model libraries, using advanced statistical, quantitative, or econometric techniques.
  • Define or recommend model specifications or data collection methods.
  • Produce written summary reports of financial research results.
  • Maintain or modify all financial analytic models in use.
  • Provide application or analytical support to researchers or traders on issues such as valuations or data.
  • Devise or apply independent models or tools to help verify results of analytical systems.
  • Collaborate in the development or testing of new analytical software to ensure compliance with user requirements, specifications, or scope.
  • Confer with other financial engineers or analysts on trading strategies, market dynamics, or trading system performance to inform development of quantitative techniques.
  • Consult traders or other financial industry personnel to determine the need for new or improved analytical applications.
Other job titles for this occupation (32)

Investment Portfolio Control Consultant · Investment Strategist · Portfolio Manager · Quantitative Analyst · Quantitative Equity Analyst · Quantitative Research Analyst · Quantitative Strategy Analyst · Research Analyst · Analyst · Data Analyst · Equity Analyst · Equity Structurer · Finance Analyst · Financial Analyst · Financial Engineer · Financial Quantitative Analyst · Investment Associate · Model Risk Manager · Model Validation Analyst · Predictive Modeler · Private Equity Analyst · Private Equity Associate · Quantitative Financial Analyst · Quantitative Model Analyst · Quantitative Model Validation Analyst · Quantitative Modeler · Quantitative Researcher · Quantitative Risk Analyst · Quantitative Strategist · Quantitative Validation Model Analyst · Risk Model Auditor · Structurer