Bloomberg/Getty Images
- Warren Buffett has championed investing as a way to put your money to work and build wealth.
- Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says everyone should use AI agents that are "productive while they sleep."
- Agents might provide a new way to divorce money from work and build diverse income streams.
"If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die."
That famous Warren Buffett line stresses the need to invest in businesses, real estate, and other assets that generate passive income such as dividends and rent.
Buffett has long warned that if you rely solely on your salary and fail to put your money to work or build other income streams, you'll have to work for a wage your entire life.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev proposed a new-age alternative during the latest episode of the "Sources" podcast. His "North Star" is that "everyone should have a team of agents that's productive while they sleep," he said.
Tenev was referring to AI agents — systems that can autonomously perform tasks by reasoning, planning, using tools, taking actions, and communicating with humans and other agents.
Early adopters are using agents to manage their emails and calendars, build apps and websites, and handle a wide range of daily tasks.
Tenev's vision is that everyone will have agents working for them at all hours, supercharging their productivity and potentially diversifying their income streams.
"I see a world where a large portion of the trading volume for an individual investor, for our customer base writ large, is generated by AI agents," he said.
Tenev said that's because agents "don't have a lot of the limitations that we have as human traders." They can operate 24/7, trade multiple asset classes simultaneously, and can easily navigate trading opportunities on Robinhood's app, he explained.
However, Tenev also said agents require supervision, suggesting they won't be a set-it-and-forget-it passive income stream.
"Each person should be a 24/7 agent manager," he said. "Your job becomes managing your agents."
That sounds much more demanding than receiving a dividend check in the mail. But it's easy to imagine people earning income from multiple sources by allocating agents to different tasks.
Buffett hasn't publicly endorsed AI agents as a way to divorce income from work, and there's no guarantee he will.
It's worth noting that the legendary investor and former Berkshire Hathaway CEO and chairman was critical of Robinhood during its pandemic boom in 2021.
He accused the trading app of encouraging users to treat the stock market like a casino and gamble using options and leveraged positions.
A Robinhood spokesperson told Business Insider at the time: "The new generation of investors aren't a 'casino group.' They are tearing down old barriers to investing and taking control of their financial futures. Robinhood is on the right side of history."