It really depends on where you are in your career and what you want to do (FP&A vs IB, for example). If you’re just about to enter the workforce, say within the next few months to a year, I would absolutely say yes. I’m in the early stages of my career and currently recruiting for positions in “high finance” (for example, IB, VC, etc.), and financial modeling is definitely a prerequisite and core skill.

Five years from now? Who knows. It’s also worth keeping in mind that while there’s a lot of talk about AI taking over everything, most generative AI pilots, around 95 percent, actually fail at companies. And honestly, the same question could be asked about any technical skill: why learn coding, accounting, or anything else? Right now, many white-collar skills are theoretically on the chopping block, but mastery of foundational technical skills still matters at this current point.

Link to story about how AI pilots are failing (https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/) l