Across multi-asset brokerage and fintech, AI is already changing how firms think about platform capability, execution quality, and client engagement. Less visibly, but just as significantly, we can see a change in the structure of sales teams.

For leadership groups, this isn’t a future trend. It’s already influencing hiring decisions across London, Cyprus and Dubai and one of the clearest signals we’re seeing is that the traditional entry path into brokerage sales is narrowing.

AI heralds the quiet disappearance of the junior sales layer

Historically, many brokerage sales careers began with high-volume outreach roles with introductory coverage, qualification activity, early-stage pipeline building. Some of these functions were already being centralised or outsourced but it is vivid that AI has accelerated that shift.

Today, automated engagement tools can identify trading intent, prioritise outreach timing, segment clients by behaviour, and surface cross-selling opportunities.

But let’s be very clear. This doesn’t remove the need for salespeople.

It does reduce the need for large teams focused purely on first-touch activity and over time, which changes the shape of the talent pipeline.

One unintended consequence we’re now seeing across the market is a growing shortage of sales professionals with five to ten years’ brokerage experience. The experience gap is already appearing.

With fewer entry-level roles five years ago (during the pandemic) we can now see fewer mid-career professionals today. Many clients are hugely keen on this talent pool and approach us every day to introduce the right calibre of experienced candidates.

At the same time, firms are scaling more selectively, looking for individuals who can manage relationships commercially rather than operationally. The result is a widening gap between junior automation-supported roles and senior revenue leadership positions.

Senior commercial leadership is becoming very much more valuable.

As AI driven platforms become more intelligent, the role of senior sales leaders becomes more strategic.

The expectation is no longer simply coverage, but ownership of client growth strategy, cross-asset expansion, platform positioning, jurisdictional scaling, and commercial alignment with product development.

We’re seeing increasing demand for Heads of Sales, Regional Commercial Directors and growth-focused leadership hires who can translate platform capability into revenue outcomes.

AI isn’t replacing these roles. It’s making them more critical.

Relationships still ultimately win business and despite the pace of automation, one thing hasn’t changed. Clients still choose to do business with people they trust.

Technology can identify opportunities. It can’t build credibility and in complex multi-asset environments, credibility remains the differentiator.

The firms investing most effectively in AI aren’t removing human interaction from the sales process, they’re elevating it.

What we’re seeing across the brokerage market

Working closely with some of the most active and ambitious brokerage platforms globally, we’re seeing a consistent pattern emerging: Firms are streamlining junior outreach structures, investing in analytics-enabled coverage models, and strengthening senior commercial leadership capability.

At the same time, the mid-career pipeline is tightening and that combination is reshaping how leadership teams think about succession, growth and organisational design.

A question for leadership teams

The impact of AI on trading infrastructure is widely discussed but Its impact on sales capability is less visible and arguably just as important.

So, the questions we’re increasingly exploring with our clients are straightforward:

• What is your organisation doing to adapt its commercial structure as AI reshapes the sales lifecycle?
• Where are you investing?
• Where are you streamlining?
• Where might capability gaps appear over the next three to five years?

These are the conversations already shaping hiring strategies across the sector and they’re also the conversations that will define the next generation of brokerage leadership.

Need to know more?

At the centre of this shift is a leadership question many brokerage and fintech organisations are now starting to ask themselves: how should our commercial structure evolve as AI reshapes the sales lifecycle?

From our work with some of the sector’s most ambitious platforms across London, Cyprus and Dubai, we’re already seeing where firms are investing, where they are streamlining, and where capability gaps are quietly emerging.

If this is something your organisation is beginning to navigate, it’s a conversation worth having with us early, because the firms adapting their sales models now are the ones positioning themselves strongest for the next phase of growth.

If you would like to discuss more about the impact of AI in this arena, please connect with m eon LinkedIn