Robinhood CEO: AI agents will Empower Small-scale Investors

Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood says AI will play a much larger role in the investment market, adding that AI agents could theoretically conduct trading tasks as well as human traders and make investment capabilities more accessible.

Discussing Robinhood’s long-term AI strategy in an interview with CNBC, Vlad says the goal is to develop “agentic trading” systems which can perform a broad array of trading tasks on the behalf of users.

“The idea behind agentic trading[is] every capability a human can do will be available to an AI agent,” he says.

He adds that most professional trading is already operated by automated systems, however those technologies are largely unavailable to retail investors. 

Vlad says that the company aims to fix that by integrating AI-powered decision making into the platform.

The CEO’s comments come amid Robinhood’s recent push to implement AI technologies into financial services. In May, the company introduced AI features to help users purchase stock options, positioning the company as an early adopter of AI within the trading market.

How AI can empower everyday traders

The suggestion that AI could carry out productive tasks for users has been described as something that could completely transform the tech sector, with firms like OpenAI and Anthropic racing to develop products capable of doing so.

Vlad says Robinhood will leverage AI technology to distribute trading options evenly among larger trading firms and small-scale investors.

“I was doing programmatic trading as an institutional player before starting Robinhood, and what you don’t realise is a large portion of trades are already automated and AI powered,” he says.

“But that type of intelligence and complexity has been out of reach from everyday people.

“The end state of agentic trading at Robinhood is to give the everyday person access to the same tools, the same computation, the same power that institutional investors in high-frequency trading firms have been enjoying for several decades.”

Plans for crypto and government collaboration

In other developments, Robinhood has announced plans to launch Crypto in the UK as it expands its European segment.

Earlier this year, the company failed to hit its desired profit targets for the first quarter as crypto-driven market volatility affected trading activity. 

Market conditions have since improved, with conflict in the Middle East showing signs of easing and strong equity markets supporting retail trading activity.

Robinhood also announced plans to act as broker and trustee for President Trump’s planned tax-advantaged savings vehicles for children under 18. The savings accounts, dubbed Trump Accounts, are set to launch on 4 July.

Vlad says this strategy is designed to create “the best consumer product that the government’s ever been associated with”.

Additionally, the company also saw less positive news, with Robinhood cutting 10% of its workforce (approximately 290 roles) in an effort to flatten its management layers and reposition its operational efficiency.

Despite this, Vlad remains optimistic about the company’s future.

In a note to employees via a post on X, Vlad said: “Robinhood’s business has never been stronger.

“We cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization. We must be a lean, hyper-focused team.”