Artificial intelligence agents will soon be able to trade with capabilities comparable to human traders, according to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, who said the technology could eventually give retail investors access to the same sophisticated tools long used by institutional firms.
Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, Tenev said the future of agentic trading is to enable AI systems to perform every trading task a human can.
“The idea behind agentic trading… [is] every capability a human can do will be available to an AI agent,” Tenev told CNBC.
He noted that much of institutional trading is already automated and powered by AI, but those capabilities have largely remained out of reach for individual investors.
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“I was doing programmatic trading as an institutional player before starting Robinhood, and what you don’t realize is a large portion of trades are already automated and AI powered,” he said.
“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,” Tenev added.
Robinhood introduced AI-powered tools in May that allow agents to trade stocks and make purchases on behalf of users. The company’s comments come as firms including OpenAI and Anthropic race to develop more advanced AI agents capable of completing complex tasks autonomously.
Separately, Robinhood announced on Wednesday that it will launch cryptocurrency trading in the U.K. as part of its broader European expansion.
Robinhood shares rose about 2% in premarket trading on Thursday after gaining 8% in the previous session, taking the company’s market capitalisation to about $98 billion. Despite the recent rally, the stock remains down roughly 5% so far in 2026.
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The brokerage had reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter profit in April as crypto market volatility hurt trading activity. Market conditions have since improved, helped by easing tensions in West Asia and stronger equity markets.
Robinhood also announced earlier this month that it would reduce its workforce by 10% as part of efforts to improve operational efficiency.
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