The era of artificial intelligence on Wall Street, and its impact on workers, has begun.

Big banks including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are unveiling plans to reimagine their businesses around AI, technology that allows for the mass production of knowledge work.

That means that even during a blockbuster year for Wall Street as trading and investment banking spins off billions of dollars in excess revenue — not typically a time the industry would be keeping a tight lid on headcount — the companies are hiring fewer people.

JPMorgan said Tuesday in its third-quarter earnings report that while profit jumped 12% from a year earlier to $14.4 billion, headcount rose by just 1%.

The bank’s managers have been told to avoid hiring people as JPMorgan deploys AI across its businesses, CFO Jeremy Barnum told analysts.

JPMorgan is the world’s biggest bank by market cap and a juggernaut across Main Street and Wall Street finance. Last month, CNBC was first to report about JPMorgan’s plans to inject AI into every client and employee experience and every behind-the-scenes process at the bank.

The bank has “a very strong bias against having the reflexive response to any given need to be to hire more people,” Barnum said Tuesday. The bank had 318,153 employees as of September.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg this month that AI will eliminate some jobs, but that the company will retrain those impacted and that its overall headcount could grow.

At rival investment bank Goldman Sachs, CEO David Solomon on Tuesday issued his own vision statement around how the company would reorganize itself around AI. Goldman is coming off a quarter where profit surged 37% to $4.1 billion.

“To fully benefit from the promise of AI, we need greater speed and agility in all facets of our operations,” Solomon told employees in a memo this week.

“This doesn’t just mean re-tooling our platforms,” he said. “It means taking a front-to-back view of how we organize our people, make decisions, and think about productivity and efficiency.”

The upshot for his workers: Goldman would “constrain headcount growth” and lay off a limited number of employees this year, Solomon said.

Goldman’s AI project will take years to implement and will be measured against goals including improving client experiences, higher profitability and productivity, and enriching employee experiences, according to the memo.

Even with these plans, which is first looking at reengineering processes like client onboarding and sales, Goldman’s overall headcount is rising this year, according to bank spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli.

The comments around AI from the largest U.S. banks mirror those from tech giants including Amazon and Microsoft, whose leaders have told their workforces to brace for AI-related disruptions, including hiring freezes and layoffs.

Companies across sectors have become more blunt this year about the possible impacts of AI on employees as the technology’s underlying models becomes more capable and as investors reward businesses seen as ahead on AI.

In banking, the dominant thinking is that workers in operational roles, sometimes referred to as the back and middle office, are generally most exposed to job disruption from AI.

For instance, in May a JPMorgan executive told investors that operations and support staff would fall by at least 10% over the next five years, even while business volumes grew, thanks to AI.

At Goldman Sachs, Solomon seemed to warn the firm’s 48,300 employees that the next few years might be uncomfortable for some.

“We don’t take these decisions lightly, but this process is part of the long-term dynamism our shareholders, clients, and people expect of Goldman Sachs,” he said in the memo. “The firm has always been successful by not just adapting to change, but anticipating and embracing it.”

Kendra Scott, a jewelry brand best known for its single-pendant necklaces, is becoming the latest company to join the Western wear trend.

The company on Wednesday announced its debut boots collection in an expansion outside of the accessories market. The brand will offer three styles, available in men’s and women’s, as part of the Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott line focused on Western style.

“A lot of folks don’t know, but in the other half of my life, I take my heels off in the boardroom, and I throw my boots on and head to my ranch,” founder Kendra Scott told CNBC.

Scott, who lives in Texas, said she grew up incorporating Western wear from denim to cowboy boots into her everyday style, in what she calls a “beautiful, timeless, classic look.” Slowly, Scott said she saw the trend take hold across the globe.

“I’m sitting here going, well, this is my life everyday. This is authentically who I am and what I do,” Scott said. “I also noticed that there were a lot of Western brands out there that put cowboy first, and then they later think about the girl … so I was really excited to create a brand that put cowgirl front and center, but make it more modern.”

Kendra Scott’s expansion into Western wear rides a larger wave of companies leaning into the style. The fast-growing market for cowboy boots is projected to reach $538.6 million by 2035, according to Future Market Insights.

Other companies are taking notice. Retailers like Gap and Levi’s are marketing and innovating more denim products amid what’s become a “jeans war.” Wrangler is an exclusively Western wear brand that has leveraged the trend, and parts of American pop culture like the hit TV show “Yellowstone” and celebrities like Beyoncé are embracing the cowgirl aesthetic.

Of course, more Western wear options for consumers means tougher competition for Kendra Scott as it enters the space.

The boots launch comes after the company branched out into eyewear at the beginning of this year, entering into a licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear.

Scott said the step into Western apparel is a significant next chapter for the brand.

“It’s exciting because I think we’re at a really amazing place at Kendra Scott where this next 20 years is really going to be something that is kind of like literally, ‘hold on to your hat,’ because we’re on this launching pad that we’ve really been able to build that trust,” Scott said. “When we launch a new category, we make sure that we’re filling a void in the market and that we’re doing it with our own unique fingerprint.”