Wells Fargo, Pfizer CEOs warn U.S. could lose out to China without innovation

Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sounded alarmed Wednesday over the potential for the United States to lose competitiveness against China, but said artificial intelligence could help America maintain its lead.

Speaking at the launch of CNBC Invest in America Forum While the United States still leads in many sectors, inconsistent policy and underinvestment are giving ground to China, two executives in Washington, D.C., said. They said AI poses both risks and benefits for the U.S. economy.

AI will likely reduce workforce size but increase productivity, Scharf said.

“We will probably definitely have fewer people,” Scharf said. “When we look at the tools we’ve implemented just for people who code, you’re seeing a 20%, 30%, 40% improvement in coders. We haven’t reduced our headcount by 20%, 30% or 40%. We’re actually doing more than we normally would.”

Big banks like Wells Fargo’s JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are already hiring fewer people because of advances in artificial intelligence.

Scharf also said the financial industry is ready for major regulatory changes despite ongoing political deadlock in Washington.

“We ultimately expect significant changes to capital requirements and liquidity requirements,” he said. “We expect to see changes in the industry, not just large banks and mid-sized banks, but also smaller banks, that will allow people to do more in these areas.” [local] communities.”

Bourla, meanwhile, expressed concerns about China’s growing power in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, pointing to an increase in research and development spending, regulatory reforms and a national strategy focused on life sciences.

“Them [China] Bourla said he has applied for more patents from the United States this year. “This has never happened in history. Five years ago the split was 90%-10%. … The gap is closing, but they’re probably going to get bigger [better than us] If we can’t act together.”

Bourla urged the United States to focus on increasing its own productivity and innovation rather than trying to slow China’s progress.

“We’re spending more time thinking about how to slow down China rather than thinking about how we can be better than them,” Bourla said. “We need legislative changes here. We need stability. Tariffs and pricing have not helped.”

Pfizer recently agreed to a drug pricing agreement with the Trump administration as part of a broader effort to eliminate long-standing uncertainties about pricing, Medicaid reimbursements and distribution. As part of the agreement, Pfizer secured a three-year exemption from drug-specific tariffs based on additional investments in U.S. manufacturing.

“Uncertainty about tariffs and a significant correction of US prices – we are eliminating both uncertainties with this agreement,” Bourla said on Wednesday.

He also described AI as the next frontier in medicine and predicted that AI will revolutionize drug discovery by significantly accelerating timelines for finding treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.

“We’ve been trying to find a cure for years… Artificial intelligence will make it happen,” Bourla said.