Citi and RobinHood use AI to automate huge amounts of software development

By Matthew Griffin Intelligence and the Senses 1st September 2025

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

AI coders are rapidly over taking companies, but the risks are great.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption for teams in financial services has been surging, but its impact at $88bn fintech Robinhood has been cloudy, until now. Speaking on the 20VC Podcast, CEO Vlad Tenev revealed that AI writes roughly half the new code produced at the brokerage.

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It could be more than half, Tenev said “it’s difficult to tell with these agentic AI systems.” He said Robinhood has ditched “autocomplete” AI tools like GitHub Copilot for newer platforms like Cursor and Windsurf, where “all of the code is written by AI.” Adoption of AI tools at Robinhood is close to 100%, he said, noting that “it’s hard to even determine what the human generated code is.”

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Tenev is, however, cautious about fully embracing AI for all coding tasks. “There’s still a problem with hallucinations and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to scaffold against that,” he says.

Will Robinhood’s AI adoption impact hiring? Perhaps not, as the fintech has always had a lean headcount relative to its size and revenues. Regardless of AI, Tenev said he wants Robinhood staff to be “executing relentlessly.”

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In more traditional finance, AI appears to be having an impact on hiring. Citi revealed in its Q2 earnings presentation that a new AI tool had cut 100,000 hours of developer time; coincidentally, the bank also increased its severance payments due to its “realignment of the technology workforce.”

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.