I was a hedge fund manager at Balyasny. Now I work at an AI startup helping bankers cut out the work they hate.

"My most recent stint in the world of financial services was in hedge funds. After I left Balyasny, I was under a noncompete, and I decided to learn more about AI. I started testing tools, including stealth-mode startup products that were in early stages. What was possible was far bigger than I expected. Then you start thinking about the future - because that's what investors do - and I got super curious about where AI was going. I couldn't ignore that curiosity anymore."

"I had been at firms that had started to adopt AI technology and were creating some of their own, but, at the time that ChatGPT was being introduced, they were still early in their adoption. I joined Hebbia this year as lead AI strategist for public equities. Being inside the AI industry felt very appropriate for me as opposed to being on the receiving end."

"As an AI strategist, I help clients navigate the product and incorporate their feedback while upskilling their teams, and we build prompt libraries and end-to-end workflows. One of the things that makes the company different is that we don't think about just automating menial tasks. We actually think about making everyone at every stage of seniority in the clients that we serve better at"

Barry Duong transitioned from hedge funds to AI after leaving Balyasny and testing early-stage tools while constrained by a noncompete. He discovered AI capabilities exceeded expectations and pursued a role at Hebbia as lead AI strategist for public equities. He helps clients integrate products, gather feedback, upskill teams, and build prompt libraries and end-to-end workflows. He emphasizes not only automating menial tasks but improving performance across all seniority levels at client firms. Duong previously worked at Citadel and New Mountain Capital, and his finance experience informs product navigation and AI adoption strategies for financial services.

Read at Business Insider