Automation technology allows for the substitution of technological capital for human capital to handle tasks within a job. While few trader jobs can be fully automated, many jobs have tasks that can be. This approach plays out in automation augmenting humans, also known as ‘co-bots’.
Automation on the sell side is the next step in a long-term technological evolution. Automation is about capturing efficiencies, but more than that it is about redeploying human capital to higher-touch tickets, where traders can add more value.
A sell-side firm automating lower-value tasks is akin to a basketball player setting a pick out near the top of the key. The pick itself isn't flashy and doesn't show up in the stat sheet; its value is in freeing up the ball handler to make an open shot or pass to an open teammate, possibly the pick setter, to score. When a senior trader at a sell side firm is freed up by automation to spend the time needed to efficiently execute a large and complex trade on behalf of an important buy-side client, that is a three-pointer set up by the pick of automation.