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Rise of the Robots

Narrative Science’s new software can generate surprisingly well-written news stories from merely a set of data (link). Sounds perfect for the ruthlessly efficient financial sector. Are financial writers on the way out?

Despite the existence of robotic Shakespeares that churn out financial news, it’s value-added insights and opinion that are in demand. Because that’s where the money is. Numbers alone can’t tell investors the complete story of a company.

Nevertheless, the software certainly has personality. Lots of them in fact. “You can get anything, from something that sounds like a breathless financial reporter screaming from a trading floor to a dry sell-side researcher pedantically walking you through it,” says Jonathan Morris, COO of financial analysis firm Data Explorers (Morris ordered up the tone of a well-educated, straightforward financial newswire journalist).