Agentic AI tools capable of executing stock trades and credit card purchases without any human input are now being tested at Robinhood, CEO Vlad Tenev said, predicting that such systems will eventually perform on par with human traders.
"The idea behind agentic trading…[is] every capability a human can do will be available to an AI agent," Vlad Tenev told CNBC. Tenev framed the initiative as a democratization effort, arguing that automated and AI-driven trading strategies have long been exclusive to institutional players, and that bringing equivalent capabilities to retail customers is central to Robinhood's ambition. "That type of intelligence and complexity has been out of reach from everyday people," he added.
Robinhood introduced two agentic products in May — Agentic Trading and an Agentic Credit Card — that let customers connect third-party AI agents to the platform through Robinhood's Model Context Protocol servers. Both products keep AI activity in dedicated accounts separate from a user's primary holdings.
Through Agentic Trading, connected agents can scan analyst notes, assess portfolio distribution, and place trades without a manual trigger. At launch, only stock trading is supported, though Robinhood said it plans to expand to options, crypto, event contracts, and futures. Every transaction an agent executes triggers a push notification to the account holder, and users can disconnect an agent at any time.
The Agentic Credit Card allows agents to make purchases using a dedicated virtual card linked to Robinhood Banking. Users set a spending limit they alone control and can require manual approval for each purchase. The virtual card neither exposes the underlying Gold Card number nor provides access to the rest of a user's Robinhood account, the company said. Purchases earn 3% cash back, and eligibility at launch is limited to Gold Card customers.
According to the company, its customer base has grown to nearly 28 million people, with a presence spanning 38 countries on three continents.
The agentic tools arrive as Robinhood has been reshaping its operations. A workforce reduction carried out earlier this month eliminated roughly 290 full-time positions, representing about 10% of staff, as the company sought to strip out management layers and accelerate its development pace. Severance and related costs were expected to result in roughly $20 million in cash restructuring charges, with an additional $8 million tied to share-based compensation, both to be booked in the second quarter.
A U.K. crypto trading launch, announced Wednesday as Robinhood continues building out its European footprint, sent shares climbing roughly 8% that day; by Thursday morning, the stock was adding another 2% to 3% in premarket activity, though it remains about 5% lower for the year.