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A few weeks ago, I was in the office when a few members of our team showed me something that caught my attention.
They were on Public.com experimenting with AI to create trading instructions. Instead of simply clicking buy or sell, they could describe what they wanted to accomplish and use AI to help turn those instructions into an actual trading strategy.
It immediately got me thinking about how much this industry has changed since I got started.
My first job in the investment business was at Charles Schwab in 2000.
Schwab pioneered the discount brokerage model and helped create an entirely new competitive landscape for an industry that had long been dominated by expensive traditional brokers.
Suddenly, individual investors had access to markets at a fraction of the cost, and the old Wall Street establishment had to adapt.
I’ve watched that disruption continue for more than 25 years. Online trading replaced phone calls to brokers. Smartphones put the stock market in our pockets. Zero-commission trading changed the economics again.
And now we’re entering another major phase of disruption.
This time, it’s being driven by fintech and artificial intelligence.
You probably remember the fintech boom of 2020 and 2021. Investors couldn’t get enough of the sector. Then the bubble burst, valuations collapsed, many stocks fell 70%–90%, and Wall Street moved on.
But fintech never stopped growing.
According to McKinsey, global fintech revenue reached roughly $650 billion in 2025, up about 21% from the prior year. That’s more than three times the growth rate of the broader financial-services industry. And BCG says 74% of the largest publicly traded fintech companies are now profitable.
The hype has faded, but the businesses have gotten better. And now AI is arriving.
The first fintech wave gave us mobile banking, commission-free trading, digital payments, and buy now/pay later. It made finance faster, cheaper, and easier.
The next wave could make finance intelligent.
We’re seeing the convergence of AI, stablecoins, tokenization, and personalized financial services. Instead of simply putting your brokerage or bank account on your phone, companies are beginning to build platforms that can understand what you want to accomplish and potentially help you do it.
Robinhood Markets (HOOD) is a great example. It now has 28.6 million funded customers and $384 billion in platform assets while expanding into retirement, credit cards, banking, prediction markets, crypto, and tokenized assets.
More importantly, Robinhood launched Agentic Trading this year, allowing customers to use AI-powered agents to trade stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies. More than 100,000 customers had already opened Agentic Trading accounts by the end of July.
Today we tell our brokerage account what to buy. In the future, we may tell it what we’re trying to accomplish and let AI help determine how to get there.
Trading is only one piece of the disruption.
Nu Holdings (NU) now serves approximately 139 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Second-quarter revenue jumped 39% to nearly $5.9 billion, while quarterly net income surpassed $1 billion for the first time. Unlike traditional banks, Nu doesn’t carry the baggage of thousands of branches and decades-old technology, and it’s now integrating AI into areas such as underwriting and customer service.
SoFi Technologies (SOFI) is pursuing a similar strategy in the United States by combining banking, investing, credit cards, mortgages, and lending on one digital platform.
Affirm (AFRM) is attacking another old-school financial product: – the credit card – with buy now, pay later.
And then there’s Coinbase (COIN).
I increasingly view Coinbase as more than a cryptocurrency company. Stablecoins can move money digitally, almost instantly, and around the clock. And Coinbase says more than 99% of on-chain agentic commerce currently uses USDC.
Think about where that could lead. Humans have bank accounts and credit cards. AI agents could eventually have digital wallets, purchasing software, paying for data, and transacting with other AI agents.
Our current financial system wasn’t built for that.
When I started at Schwab in 2000, the brokerage industry was already being turned upside down. The companies that embraced lower costs and new technology won, while the old guard was forced to adapt.
26 years later, I think we’re watching another transformation begin.
Like the great Donald Fagen of Steely Dan said, “if you live in this world, you’re feeling the change of the guard.”
HOOD, NU, SOFI, AFRM, and COIN are attacking different parts of finance, but they’re moving toward the same destination: a financial system that’s more digital, automated, personalized, and increasingly powered by AI.
For years, Wall Street wondered whether these fintech disruptors could survive.
I’m starting to wonder whether old-school finance can keep up.
Safe to say, “I’m never going back to my old school.”
That’s TWO Steely Dan references in one article… you’re welcome.
P.S. Everything above, discount brokers giving way to online trading, online trading giving way to zero commissions, all of it, is the same pattern playing out again right now with AI.
It’s exactly why Bryan Bottarelli’s reveal this Wednesday caught my attention. He’s built an AI-powered scanner of his own, and it’s produced gains as high as 695%, including one trade that would have turned $1,000 into $10,580.
He’s showing it LIVE on September 16 at 2:00 p.m. EST.
