As fears grow that artificial intelligence (AI) will wipe out jobs, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says the opposite may be true.
Tenev argues that AI will not eliminate work, but rather redefine what it means to have a job.
Tenev said skepticism about new technology is nothing new, likening the current AI shift to the national transition from agricultural and factory labor to office and digital work over the past century.
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Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets Inc., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview on the sidelines of the Token2049 conference in Singapore on Oct. 2. (Getty Images)
“Maybe 100 years ago, our ancestors looked at what you and I are doing now, which is a bit like talking to each other digitally about AI. They think, you know, that’s not real work,” Tenev said.
“I think in the same way that they probably wouldn’t consider what we do as real work, we do [going to] look ahead to the job families and employment opportunities in the future,” he added.
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Those future jobs, Tenev said, could include new forms of investing and trading for a living, roles that many people don’t currently consider viable full-time careers.
“Maybe that’s not real work,” Tenev said.
Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets Inc., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in London, England, on July 8. (Getty Images)
“But for the people of the future, it will certainly feel very real and stressful, and it will bring with it all the feelings we get about our work,” he added.
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Tenev argues that technological disruption has always changed work norms rather than eliminating them altogether. He noted that while similar shifts have occurred before, the pace of change today is much faster.
“Even though we have seen such disruptions in the past, we feel that these will accelerate,” he said.
“The speed, the rate of change and the acceleration make us very nervous.”
Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Markets Inc., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in London, United Kingdom, on November 29, 2023. (Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Automation and AI have already started to replace some professional tasks, with companies like Amazon and Salesforce citing this as one of the factors behind the recent layoffs.
The changes have raised concerns in Washington, where a December 2025 Senate report ranked fast food, customer service and executive assistant positions among the most vulnerable to automation.
Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev explains how prediction markets became the “fastest growing business of all time” and discusses their future in “Making Money.”
