Robinhood Markets Inc. customers will soon be able to direct artificial intelligence agents to trade equities and make purchases on their credit cards for them. The Menlo Park, California-based company announced the new feature in a statement Wednesday.
AI-Powered Trading Accounts
Clients will be able to establish an agentic trading account that is entirely separate from their standard portfolio, limiting the funds an agent can access to only those deposited. Investors can then direct the AI agent to build a diversified portfolio from scratch or adjust concentrations to take advantage of market opportunities.
"Some people are setting up hypotheses, some people are doing rebalancing," Abhishek Fatehpuria, Robinhood's vice president of product management for brokerage, said in an interview. "When we enable customers to connect their outside agents and outside tools, the possibilities are pretty vast."
Learning from User Behavior
Fatehpuria added that he looks forward to learning how different people use the product, which will inform future development. Like other firms in the retail-investing space, Robinhood has already leveraged AI to enhance its products, including its wealth-management service Robinhood Cortex, which provides analysis and insights to optimize holdings. Rival Charles Schwab Corp. has also highlighted wealth management as an area where AI can improve efficiency and focus on complex client needs.
Expanding Asset Classes
Initially, customers will be able to direct an agent to engage only with equities. Support for options, cryptocurrencies, event contracts, futures, and other products will be added later, according to the statement.
Credit Card Purchases with AI
Robinhood Gold cardholders can direct AI agents to transact on their behalf, but only after setting a monthly spending limit and opting into or out of required manual approvals. For example, a cardholder might set up an alert for a coveted restaurant reservation, directing the agent to book it when available, or ask an agent to search for a sought-after handbag and purchase it if the total cost is below US$2,500.
Customers with Robinhood Gold cards will gain access to the capability first, with Platinum cardholders to be added after that card launches later this year.
