Exclusive: Public launches AI-powered brokerage
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Investing platform Public is launching an AI-powered brokerage designed to research, build and manage portfolios, the company shares exclusively with Axios.
Why it matters: Competition among brokerages will likely intensify as firms use AI to make investing easier and stickier for users.
Zoom in: Starting Monday, users on Public will be able to create their own investable indexes using artificial intelligence.
- Users can ask for a portfolio of stocks that are beneath a certain price-to-earnings ratio and that are also tariff resistant, for example. Users can also remix indexes, combining stocks from the both S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
- These self-directed ETFs of sorts will come with a fee of 49 basis points.
Public also plans to launch an AI-powered wealth and portfolio manager in early 2026. This will let users set recurring actions on their accounts like:
- Auto-investing cash holdings once their balance hits a certain threshold.
- Auto-buying of stock dips or auto-selling of rallies in specific securities.
- Advising on tax-loss harvesting opportunities within their accounts.
What they're saying: "We've always sensed there is this gap in the market for a platform that the next generation can use to take investing really seriously and build that long-term, forever portfolio," Jannick Malling, co-CEO and co-founder of Public, tells Axios.
Between the lines: The company is willing to pay up for the AI technology with the hope these features will drive more users and more trades.
- When Public launched an AI-powered research assistant, it found that almost half of the conversations led to a transaction within 24 hours.
Threat level: AI and automation in trading could bump up against regulatory guardrails meant to prevent unlicensed investment advice.
- Public says it addresses that by ensuring investment decisions are still "self directed" rather than an agent "going rogue trading" for you.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission moved to regulate use of AI by broker-dealers in 2024. It is unclear whether the current administration will pursue the policy.
- Investors should ask broad and unbiased questions when interacting with large language models in order to get the most accurate answers, Andrew Lo, professor of finance at MIT, tells Axios.
What to watch: Public aims to take market share from institutional players with these tools.
- While Public once drew most of its account transfers from Robinhood, it now says the majority come from Charles Schwab and Fidelity.
