It may look radically different: Nithin Kamath on how AI could change trading

The combination of AI, new technologies, evolving regulations and changing market structures could push investing well beyond today's broker-app model, says Kamath.Nithin Kamath says that a fully digital onboarding process could remove one of the biggest hurdles faced by NRI investors.Trading apps have become faster, simpler and packed with more information. But according to Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath, the basic way people trade has barely changed. He believes that could be about to change as AI, new technologies and changing market rules reshape the way investors access markets.The bigger question is not whether trading apps will become better. It is whether investors will need traditional broker apps at all.THE TRADING PROCESS HAS BARELY CHANGEDFor all the changes in technology, the basic trading journey remains familiar. An investor places an order through a broker, and the broker sends it to an exchange.Kamath said this model has survived despite major improvements in the way trading platforms look and work. “If you think about it, trading and investing have changed a lot on the surface, but the fundamental act has remained more or less the same,” Kamath said.“Platforms look better. They are easier to use. There is more information, more data, more products, and far better tools. But underneath all of that, you still place an order through a broker, which then goes to an exchange,” he added. But this is where Kamath sees a potential shift.WHY AI COULD CHANGE THE ROLE OF BROKERSAI is changing the way people interact with software. Instead of opening several apps, searching for information and manually placing orders, investors could eventually use an AI-powered interface that understands their preferences and helps them interact with financial markets.Kamath believes this could make the traditional broker app less important.“The question is will this remain true in the future? AI is changing how software is built and used. Market structure and regulations are evolving,” he said.In his view, a broker could eventually become less visible to the customer and simply provide the connection between the investor and the exchange.“I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the future, a broker becomes little more than a pipe between the customer and the exchange,” Kamath said.YOUR TRADING INTERFACE COULD BE BUILT JUST FOR YOUOne of the biggest changes could be the way investors interact with markets.Today, investors generally use the interface designed by their broker. In the future, Kamath believes AI could create a more personalised interface based on what each investor wants.“The customer may interact with the markets through a completely personal, AI-built interface rather than a broker’s app,” he said.That could mean two investors using the same broker or exchange may have completely different ways of viewing information, analysing opportunities and placing trades.The broker and exchange could continue to exist in the background, but the investor may interact mainly with an AI system sitting on top of them.TOKENISATION AND PREDICTION MARKETS ADD ANOTHER LAYERAI is not the only force that could change investing. Kamath also pointed to new asset classes and financial technologies that are emerging.“There are new asset classes and technologies, such as tokenization, prediction markets, and other weird experiments emerging,” he said.Not every new idea will survive. Some may remain niche or disappear altogether. But Kamath believes it is impossible to know which experiments could eventually become mainstream.“90% of it may be pure degeneracy, but you never know what might become mainstream,” he said.This uncertainty is part of what makes the next phase of financial markets difficult to predict.WHY THE FUTURE OF INVESTING COULD LOOK VERY DIFFERENTThe combination of AI, new technologies, evolving regulations and changing market structures could push investing well beyond today's broker-app model.Kamath does not claim to know exactly what that future will look like. But he believes investors should be prepared for a much bigger change than simply another upgrade to their trading app.“We don’t know what the future of trading and investing will look like. But we think it may look radically different,” Kamath said.The shift, if it happens, could move the broker further into the background while AI becomes the main interface between investors and financial markets. For investors, that could mean a future where the question is no longer which trading app they use, but how they want their own AI-powered financial interface to work.- EndsPublished By: Jasmine anandPublished On: Aug 20, 2026 18:41 IST