Pranav Ramesh, Head of Options Research at Nasdaq and Co-founder & CTO of Leadpoet, stated that Nasdaq has significantly expanded the application of AI agents over the past 18 months, covering areas such as market surveillance, compliance, and market microstructure analysis, while retaining human review for final decision-making. Ramesh anticipates that cryptocurrency trading platforms will be the first to introduce AI agent tools for retail traders, encompassing portfolio analysis, trading recommendations, and execution support, although the systems are not yet fully autonomous. He also pointed out that AI agents have begun to replace entry-level positions, with recent layoffs at companies like Crypto.com, Messari, and Block citing the advancement of AI automation as a reason, which validates this trend. Leadpoet, an AI sales startup co-founded by Ramesh and Gavin Zaentz, disclosed in February 2026 that it achieved $1 million in annualized revenue in its first quarter after launch and secured investment from DSV Fund and Astrid. The company utilizes the Bittensor decentralized AI network and has joined the NVIDIA Inception program.