EXCLUSIVE: Would You Let AI Trade Your Money? Only 12% Said Never — the Other 88% Disagreed on How Far

The rise of AI agents could make stock trading and investments easier for retail investors and others. The question is whether investors are ready to give up control on their investments and let AI make picks for them. We asked Benzinga viewers to find out how close AI making all stocks trades is to a reality.

Benzinga Viewers Vote No on AI TradingConsumers are hearing more and more about the capabilities of AI agents thanks to the launch of Muse from Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META). Muse can be used to help find savings and with other financial goals and objectives.

Muse can also be used to help make investments and provide investment advice.

When it comes to using AI agents to make investment decisions, investors might not be ready to completely hand control over.

Benzinga asked viewers on its morning "PreMarket Playbook" show on Sept. 30 about using AI for investments.

"Would you let AI fully trade for you?" Benzinga asked

The results are:

  • Just for ideas, I pull the trigger: 36%
  • Only with limits and a kill switch: 31%
  • Yes, hand it the keys: 21%
  • Never, I trust my own gut: 12%
The majority of the 161 respondents see AI as a tool to help and not to fully make the decisions, with 67% selecting one of the two options that was for partial help.

Perhaps surprisingly enough, more viewers were willing to trust AI agents completely (21%) than those who said they would never let AI fully trade for them, which was the lowest vote-getter at 12%.

Benzinga's "PreMarket Playbook" airs Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. ET on YouTube.

Robinhood Launches AI Trading Tools

Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) recently rolled out new AI trading tools, including autonomous AI trading agents that are built into the company's app.

Robinhood Agents can build investment strategies and make trades on their own with the permission of users.

According to Robinhood, more than 150,000 customers have already launched agentic accounts since May.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev highlighted that the launch of automatic trading as a tool that was only available to hedge funds and big banks and now can be used by everyday users.

With the launch of 24-hour trading, Robinhood also sees AI agents as a way for investors to have trades made based on instructions they set, even when they aren't around to see them.

"The stock market never sleeps, and neither should your portfolio," Robinhood said.