Fintechs Latest Trend AI Agents For Investment Research

Companies of all sizes, ranging from trading app Robinhood to 10-person New York startups, are now using AI to speed up and improve investment research.

Hebbia

For all the fast adoption of artificial intelligence tools in so many facets of business, AI’s entrance into fintech applications has been slow so far. That’s largely due to regulatory and compliance hurdles related to handling people’s money, industry experts say. To date, most AI features in fintech have focused on speeding up functions like customer service, accounting and other back-office operations, with companies ranging from Klarna and Chime to Stripe and Ramp announcing new AI products. Now a new trend in fintech is emerging: using AI for deep investment research.

Many companies wading into this space are using AI agents—code that can understand contextual information, make logical decisions and take actions. Agents can perform tasks like making investment recommendations or creating draft PowerPoint presentations. Just over the past month, trading app Robinhood and Arta Finance, a startup that aims to be a digital “family office” by giving wealthy consumers access to alternative investments, have announced new consumer-facing AI features. An even larger set of emerging companies, nearly all of which seem to be based in New York, are using AI to speed up research for investment bankers and investors. They include outfits like AlphaSense, Hebbia, RavenPack and Rogo.

It’s hard to tell which of these businesses will live up to their promises and hype. Most are early-stage startups, and the venture capital frenzy for AI companies is still in full swing, making it even more difficult to predict which will build durable businesses. But they’re all addressing labor-intensive tasks where improvements are long overdue.

Key Players in AI-Driven Investment Research

• Hebbia: A five-year-old New York company that uses AI to help financial institutions, law firms and other large companies speed up their research. It raised $130 million in funding last year at a $700 million valuation.