AI is everywhere – from viral trends and topping the leaderboards for reasoning tests to now passing one of the toughest finance exams in the world.
A new study from NYU Stern and AI wealth-management startup GoodFin put 23 AI models through their paces on Level III of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam. For those unfamiliar, this is widely regarded as the most difficult stage.
Shockingly, several models passed with ease, finishing the test in just minutes, using advanced prompting techniques.
Here are the models that passed the CFA exam
The researchers tested a mix of new and older large language models (LLMs). Using chain-of-thought prompting, meaning the AI explains its reasoning every step of the way. Here’s how some of the top models performed:
- OpenAI o4-mini — Passed Level III
- Google Gemini 2.5 Pro — Passed Level III
- Anthropic Claude Opus — Passed Level III
- Other smaller or older models — Struggled with the essay-style, reasoning-heavy questions
Two years ago, AI could only reliably handle Level I of the CFA exam. This jump to Level III shows just how quickly AI reasoning has advanced.
Why this matters
In just a year, this test proves how much AI is catching up with human analysts. Passing Level III, the most challenging level, suggests that AI can now handle not just rote memorization, but complex scenario analysis, something financial analysts rely on daily.
It’s important to keep in mind that exams do not equal real-world judgment, and while AI is capable, it shouldn’t replicate the trust, ethics and practical decision-making of a human CFA. Too much reliance on AI could lead to more workslop.
But the success we’ve seen on these tests does mean we could see more hybrid workflows with analysts increasingly leaning on AI to support data analysis, report drafting, and researching, while certification and human oversight remain critical.
The bottom line
AI’s ability to ace the CFA exam underscores how reasoning-focused models are evolving to help humans in even more ways. Beyond finance, we could see similar breakthroughs happening in medicine, law and engineering, where exams highlight expertise.
For aspiring CFA charter holders, this may be a preview of the tools you’ll be using in your career as AI assistants speed up the grind, allowing you to focus on higher-level strategy and client trust.
The bottom line here is that AI passing the hardest CFA level in minutes shows the raw potential of advanced AI like o4-mini, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Claude Opus. But for now, human expertise still sets the gold standard in finance.
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