Robinhood CEO says just like every company became a tech company, every company will become an AI company

Companies are pumping billions of dollars into AI investments to keep pace with a rapidly changing technology that’s transforming the way business is done.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told David Rubenstein this week on Bloomberg Wealth that the race to implement AI in business is a “huge platform shift” comparable to the mobile and cloud transformations in the mid-2000s, but “perhaps bigger.”

“In the same way that every company became a technology company, I think that every company will become an AI company,” he explained. “But that will happen at an even more accelerated rate.”

Tenev, who co-founded the brokerage platform in 2013, pointed out that traders are not just trading to make money, but also because they love it and are “extremely passionate about it.”

“I think there will always be a human element to it,” he added. “I don’t think there’s going to be a future where AI just does all of your thinking, all of your financial planning, all the strategizing for you. It’ll be a helpful assistant to a trader and also to your broader financial life. But I think the humans will ultimately be calling the shots.”

Yet, Tenev anticipates AI will change jobs and advised people to become “AI native” quickly to avoid being left behind during an August episode of the Iced Coffee Hour podcast. He added AI will be able to scale businesses far faster than previous tech booms did. 

“My prediction over the long run is you’ll have more single-person companies,” Tenev said on the podcast. “One individual will be able to use AI as a huge accelerant to starting a business.”

Global businesses are banking on artificial intelligence technologies to move rapidly from the experimental stage to daily operations, though a recent MIT survey found that 95% of pilot programs failed to deliver.

U.S. tech giants are racing ahead, with the so-called hyperscalers planning to spend $400 billion on capital expenditures in the coming year, and most of that is going to AI.

Studies show AI has already permeated a majority of businesses. A recent McKinsey survey found 78% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, up from 72% in early 2024 and 55% in early 2023. Now, companies are looking to continually update cutting-edge technology.

In the finance world, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon believes AI will “augment virtually every job,” and described its impact as “extraordinary and possibly as transformational as some of the major technological inventions of the past several hundred years: think the printing press, the steam engine, electricity, computing, and the Internet.”