Ripple leans into AI as it eyes a blockbuster year and major hiring push Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told attendees at the SALT Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Aug. 20 that the company is “aggressively” adopting artificial intelligence to scale revenue, products and headcount — framing AI as both an enabler and an accelerant for companies already experiencing customer demand. “AI, if you are in a business that has opportunity to grow and you’re serving customers and have compelling solutions, AI just lets you do that better and faster and stronger,” Garlinghouse said in a recorded interview. He added that Ripple currently has roughly 1,500 employees worldwide and about 150 open roles, and that the company plans to keep expanding as business grows. AI and layoffs: excuse or explanation? Garlinghouse pushed back on the narrative that AI is intrinsically a job killer. “When I see companies announce big layoffs and they say, ‘Oh, well, AI X, Y, and Z,’ that to me says, ‘Well, they were bloated before and they’re using this as an excuse,’” he said — an opinion about how some firms frame reductions rather than evidence about any specific employer. Analysts note companies cite a range of reasons for cuts, from restructuring and automation to shifting customer demand. Open roles and AI-first engineering Ripple’s public careers portal showed 94 listings at the time of review, a gap from Garlinghouse’s 150 figure that could reflect unposted roles, third-party recruiting channels, or recent changes. Several job postings explicitly tie hiring to AI strategy: one senior engineering role calls for building an “AI native operation” using agentic development methods to expand the company’s payout network without relying solely on headcount growth. Revenue outlook and what’s driving it Garlinghouse said Ripple expects a record year and will “more than double revenue year on year.” As a privately held company, Ripple does not publish audited quarterly financials, so that projection remains company guidance. Ripple’s commercial expansion has accelerated through acquisitions and new institutional offerings. In October 2025 the firm closed a $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, rebranding it Ripple Prime — a prime brokerage arm Ripple says clears more than $3 trillion annually for over 300 institutional customers. The company also reported the prime brokerage business had tripled in size between the acquisition announcement and its close; that figure is company-supplied and not independently audited. Ripple has further broadened its product set into treasury and custody services. Following its acquisition of treasury software provider GTreasury, Ripple launched an enterprise platform for managing digital assets and liquidity aimed at corporate treasurers and institutional clients. Institutional infrastructure, AI and blockchain Garlinghouse framed these moves as a bet on financial infrastructure: “More and more people are realizing that the infrastructure side, the institutional side is where it’s at,” he said, positioning Ripple as a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized infrastructure. Ripple President Monica Long echoed the AI theme in the company’s 2026 predictions, suggesting AI models could run alongside blockchains to automate liquidity management, margin calls and portfolio rebalancing — boosting throughput rather than simply replacing staff. What to watch next The clearest tests of Ripple’s claims will be hiring activity and whether the company hits its revenue targets. Any future IPO would provide independently audited financials; Ripple has not announced a timetable for going public. Finally, it’s important to note that Ripple’s commercial growth does not automatically translate into demand for XRP — Ripple the company is private and distinct from the XRP token, and many enterprise services can scale without creating direct XRP demand. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news