Interactive Brokers used its Q3 2026 earnings call on October 15, 2026 to disclose that clients can now hand trading decisions to an AI agent. "We also launched autonomous AI trading, which allows eligible clients to connect the AI agent of their choice," CEO Milan Galik said.
Clients create and fund a dedicated partition within an existing account in a single session, without opening a new account, according to the company.
The feature works with any compatible MCP client or AI platform and supports trading in global stocks and options across day, overnight, and overnight-plus-day sessions. It is available in several countries, with additional countries to follow.
The rollout is limited for now. Initial invitations went to clients who had already used the firm's human-in-the-loop AI connector, and Galik said about 3,000 clients were invited over the preceding several days, with eligibility expanding in the following weeks.
Galik described the AI connector that preceded autonomous trading as human-in-the-loop, and said it "remains 1 of the fastest adopted features we have ever introduced."
This quarter, the firm added Perplexity as an official partner and expanded connectivity "to support any AI tool that uses the model context protocol or MCP," including coding and desktop assistants. New connector capabilities include account-level P&L, alert management, watch lists, and trading of two-leg option strategies.
Wells Fargo analyst Kyle Voigt asked what share of the customer base would be eligible and whether AI tools would increase trading activity. Galik did not give a percentage, but said the invited number "is going to greatly increase."
He said he expects clients to grow more comfortable with AI making trading decisions on their behalf, adding, "we expect higher trading volumes related to AI adoption over time."
Internally, the firm is rolling out AI-assisted tools to its client service team that "retrieve data across multiple internal systems" and analyze client requests for representatives.
"New account onboarding, compliance, and surveillance are all incorporating AI and machine learning to help us scale," Galik said. CFO Paul Brody described the firm's core strategy as "automating as much of the brokerage business as possible."
Commission revenue reached $602 million, up 12% year over year, and GAAP diluted EPS was $0.69, up 17%.