Orlando Bravo says AI is changing how much he pulls junior associates into late-night work, arguing the technology should free them for higher-value investing rather than replace them.
At 2 a.m., the email usually doesn’t ask permission. It arrives. bright and urgent. and somewhere down the chain a junior associate has to drop what they’re doing to rebuild a model or rework a slide. Orlando Bravo—billionaire founder of software-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo—described a different pattern on Tuesday. saying he now reaches for AI to finish quick tasks at midnight instead of waking his team.
Bravo. speaking at a conference in Berlin on Tuesday. said he bothers junior employees “a lot less” because “at midnight I can do something really quickly with AI. instead of calling them to do it in the middle of the night.” He added that doing it this way “improves their life anyway. which is what they want.”.
For years, the brutal pace of entry-level work on Wall Street has been a point of contention. Questions about those hours have persisted for decades, including reports from some employees of weeks exceeding 100 hours. Against that backdrop. AI has sparked a different kind of anxiety: if software can handle the grind. what happens to the juniors who traditionally get stuck doing the repetitive work?.
Bravo believes the answer is not job cuts. He said AI tools can take on time-consuming tasks that juniors have historically been responsible for—such as building models or creating pitch decks. In his view. that shift gives associates room to focus on “higher-order thinking and investing. ” and AI will generally allow young employees to “mature” faster.
The fear driving the debate is simple: AI could reduce demand for junior employees. Many in finance have tried to frame AI differently. arguing it will be used as a productivity tool rather than a replacement effort. Bravo rejected the idea that the technology will automate associates out of a job. saying the opposite is true at his firm.
Thoma Bravo employs around 220 people. and Bravo said he feels the need to hire more people for the first time in his three-decade career in private equity. He made the case in direct terms. “If you define the role of an associate as just doing a spreadsheet. you don’t need that. but our associates are now calling on companies a lot more. they’re developing relationships with CEOs. and we need a lot more of them.”.
His firm’s broader investment focus is software. Bravo said his company manages more than $180 billion, and he positioned AI as part of how Thoma Bravo expects that strategy to keep working.
Across the industry. finance leaders are weighing in on what AI means for entry-level work—often with careful language about transformation rather than displacement. Leaders at many Wall Street banks have said AI will transform roles on the sell side. but none have publicly announced large-scale cuts tied to the technology. The number of summer interns on Wall Street has largely held steady or risen.
Even so, change may be coming. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said earlier this month that the bank’s post-graduation hiring could “contract a little” over the next three years as AI reshapes work.
The contrast is where the tension sits: Bravo describes AI as a way to stop the midnight pull on associates and shift their time toward higher-stakes activity—while other executives are signaling that hiring plans may eventually tighten as AI changes how work gets done. For junior employees used to the early-hours email, the difference isn’t academic. It’s the difference between being called into the work and being left to sleep.
AI Thoma Bravo Orlando Bravo private equity junior associates Wall Street hours summer interns Goldman Sachs David Solomon hiring models pitch decks