The hedge fund world is notoriously tight-lipped. But when Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management makes a move to snag talent from a direct rival like Millennium Management, people notice. Recently, Point72 hired Kendall Jager as the new Head of AI for Investment Services.
It's a big deal. Not just because of the "poaching" drama, but because of what it says about where the smartest money on Wall Street is going right now.
Who is Kendall Jager?
If you haven’t followed the rising stars in quantitative finance, the name might be new. Kendall Jager isn't some career administrator. She's a heavy hitter in the data science world. At just 29, she’s already an alum of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
Before jumping ship to Point72, Jager spent nearly eight years at Millennium Management. She started there right after graduating from Brown University with a degree in applied mathematics and economics. She didn't just sit in a cubicle; she was a "critical member" of the team that built Millennium's internal machine learning platform for their compliance department.
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Basically, she knows how to take messy financial data and make it useful for the people running the show.
What is She Actually Doing at Point72?
Point72 is based in New York and manages about $41.5 billion as of late 2025. When they bring in someone like Jager to lead "Investment Services" AI, they aren't looking for someone to build a chatbot. They are looking for automation.
Investment services at a place like Point72 covers the "guts" of the firm:
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- Risk Management: Predicting when things might go sideways before they actually do.
- Compliance: Using AI to flag trades that look suspicious or break rules in real-time.
- Operations: Cleaning up the backend processes that usually require hundreds of humans.
Honestly, the goal is efficiency. If you can automate the boring stuff with high precision, you reduce human error and save a ton of money.
The Great AI Talent War
Point72 hiring Kendall Jager is just one shot fired in a much larger war. Steve Cohen has been on a tear lately. The firm recently launched Turion, a dedicated stock-picking fund specifically focused on AI companies. They also hired Todd Hirsch from Blackstone and Jennifer Cohen (no relation to Steve) from Schonfeld to beef up their leadership.
The competition for people who actually understand machine learning is getting wild. We’re talking base salaries for senior AI roles hitting $400,000, and that’s before the discretionary bonuses that hedge funds are famous for.
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"The talent war between elite multi-manager funds is expanding beyond just Portfolio Managers and analysts." — Industry consensus from recent internal memos.
Why Most People Get This Wrong
A lot of folks think AI in hedge funds is just about "the bots" making trades. That’s only half the story. The real value right now—the stuff Kendall Jager is likely focused on—is Operational Alpha.
If Point72 can use AI to manage risk better than Millennium or Citadel, they can stay in trades longer or take more aggressive positions with less fear. It’s the infrastructure that wins the game, not just the flashy algorithms.
What This Means for Your Career (Actionable Steps)
If you're looking at this news and wondering how to position yourself in a world where Point72 hires Kendall Jager to run their AI future, here is the reality:
- Bridge the Gap: Jager’s background is Applied Math and Economics. She speaks "Finance" and "Code." If you only speak one, you’re becoming obsolete. Start learning how data science applies to specific business functions like compliance or risk.
- Focus on Implementation: It’s easy to talk about AI. It’s hard to build a platform that a $40 billion fund trusts. Focus your portfolio on deployable models, not just theoretical notebooks.
- Watch the Multi-Managers: Keep an eye on Point72, Citadel, and Millennium. They are the bellwethers. If they are hiring for "Head of AI for Investment Services," it means the next wave of jobs won't be in trading, but in the intelligent automation of the entire financial machine.
The move is a clear signal. Point72 isn't just a hedge fund anymore; it’s becoming a technology company that happens to trade stocks. And with Jager at the helm of their AI services, they are betting big that math will beat intuition every single time.