As the tech world increasingly focuses on AI agents, several companies are developing tools that allow these agents to handle payments and trade stocks on behalf of users. Stock trading platform Robinhood is joining this trend. On Wednesday, the company announced the launch of support for AI agentic trading, along with a new agentic credit card. Users on the platform can now create a separate account specifically for their AI agents and link them to a dedicated wallet. These agents can read and analyze users' portfolios to develop trading strategies and suggest investments, but they can only use the pre-loaded balance in that dedicated wallet to place orders.

Users will receive notifications for every trade their AI agent makes and can monitor all activities directly within the Robinhood app. For certain trades, agents will display a preview that users may need to approve before the order goes through. The company has also implemented fraud detection protections, where a Robinhood team will review suspicious trades and assist users in resolving disputes. Users can connect their AI agents to Robinhood's Model Context Protocol (MCP) service to perform tasks such as analyzing concentration risk and sector exposure, executing trades, or reviewing analyst notes to uncover new investment opportunities across different sectors. The agentic trading feature is currently in beta and only supports stock trading, but the company plans to add support for options, crypto, event contracts, futures, and prediction markets soon.

Robinhood is also introducing a new virtual credit card designed for use by AI agents. With this card, users can connect their AI agents to the company's banking MCP server, enabling them to make payments. This virtual card is initially available only to Robinhood Gold Card holders, who can link their account to this new card. Users can set monthly spending limits on the virtual card and choose whether their AI agent should request approval for each payment. The company stated that its Robinhood Platinum Card will also support a similar virtual agentic card feature when it launches later this year.

Robinhood has been expanding its AI initiatives over the past few years. In 2024, the company acquired AI-powered research platform Pluto, and last year it added an AI assistant that provides investment advice. "We’ve heard a lot of demand from our customers to bring their own tools, LLMs, and agents, and connect them to Robinhood." Robinhood is not alone in enabling AI agents to make payments; major players like Stripe, Amazon, and Google, as well as newer startups like Prava Pay, are also building products that give AI agents the ability to make purchases on users' behalf.