“If you can’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you’re going to work yourself to death.”
Warren Buffett’s famous quote highlights the need to invest in businesses, real estate, and other assets that generate passive income such as dividends and rentals.
Buffett has long warned that if you rely solely on your paycheck and fail to put your money to work or build other sources of income, you will have to work for paychecks throughout your life.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev proposed a new-age alternative on the latest episode of the “Sources” podcast. His “north star” is that “everyone should have a customer service team that works effectively while they sleep,” he said.
Tenev refers to artificial intelligence 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 email and calendars, build apps and websites, and handle a variety of daily tasks.
Tenev’s vision is that everyone will have agents working for them around the clock, increasing their productivity and potentially diversifying their income streams.
“In my opinion, the majority of the trading volume for individual investors and our client base is generated by artificial intelligence agents,” he said.
Tenev said this is because agents “don’t have as many constraints as human traders”. He explained that they can operate 24/7, trade multiple asset classes simultaneously, and easily find trading opportunities on Robinhood’s app.
However, Tenev also said agents require oversight, suggesting they won’t be a one-and-done source of passive income.
“Everyone should be an acting manager 24/7,” he said. “Your job is to manage your agent.”
That sounds more demanding than receiving a dividend check in the mail. But it’s easy to imagine people earning income from multiple sources by assigning agents to different tasks.
Buffett has yet to publicly endorse AI agents as a way to decouple income from work, and there’s no guarantee he will.
Notably, the legendary investor and former CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway criticized Robinhood during the 2021 outbreak.
He accused the trading app of encouraging users to treat the stock market like a casino and gamble with options and leveraged positions.
A Robinhood spokesperson told Business Insider at the time: “This new generation of investors is not a ‘casino syndicate.’ They are removing old barriers to investing and taking control of their financial future. Robinhood is on the right side of history.”