London's financial district, known as the City, will soon be run more by robots than by people, it's claimed. Photo: Reuters

Robots will be running Britain's financial sector within 10 years, rendering investment bankers, analysts and even quants redundant, it has been claimed.

Artificial intelligence is about to outpace human ability, according to Dave Coplin, a senior Microsoft executive.

Computers will not only be able to undertake complex mathematical equations but draw logical, nuanced conclusions, reducing the need for human interference, he said.

This will render certain professions redundant, while other "human only" skills will become increasingly valuable.

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"I believe in Moravec's Paradox," Mr Coplin, Microsoft's UK-based chief envisioning officer, told The Telegraph, referring to the 1980s hypothesis discovered by artificial intelligence and robotics researchers.

"This states that what we think is easy, robots find really hard, and what we think it really hard, robots find easy," he said.

"Complex maths equations are hard for humans but take nanoseconds for a computer, but moving around and picking things up is easy for us, while being almost impossible for a robot."

Meanwhile, he said, professions currently viewed as commodities will become specialist human skills.

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Bankers beware: Robot revolution set to push humans aside