This morning, I moved $1 million out of my bank.

I opened an account at Public.com and deposited the funds. The process took less than five minutes, in part because I was using an AI-driven process from a financial intermediary (Plaid) that helps link accounts.

In August, Public began to offer AI agents that can manage your investing, your trading, and your cash management using a plain-English interface. You simply tell the AI what you’re trying to achieve, and it goes to work. I asked Public’s AI agent to find the best possible after-tax return on my cash, restricting the search to investment-grade choices.

It explained why, in the face of rising interest rates, the iShares 0–3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) is my best option. SGOV is currently paying 3.67%. On $1 million, that works out to $36,700 a year.

That’s a lot of money that my bank is, more or less, stealing from me. Over five years the delta (the difference) between keeping my cash in a traditional bank and allowing Public to find the best possible after-tax yield for me should produce at least $200,000.

Here’s the best part. These same agents are going to run this analysis for me every 30 days and automatically move my cash to wherever it’s going to be treated best. I can set the parameters on what it’s allowed to buy – investment-grade credit with three years or less duration – so I’m not going to end up in penny stocks or anything like that.

Is this worth doing even if you’re not a millionaire? On $100,000, the same calculation produces $3,670 in the first year and about $19,747 over five years before taxes. That might not be worth it to you if you had to go to the bank and do all of this yourself. But Public isn’t charging me anything for this service. It’s free. And it happens automatically – and I don’t have to go anywhere.

The impact of these changes isn’t merely extra interest income for millions of people. This is the end of banking as it exists today. For decades, banks have enabled payments in exchange for taking a huge interest rate spread on our deposits. That business model is over: AI agents can optimize overnight yields and handle payments, for virtually zero cost.

Who is most at risk? Bank of America (BAC). Its Advantage Plus checking account pays no interest. Bank of America holds $544 billion of other people’s money... and pays exactly nothing.

Why do customers tolerate this? There are many reasons – habit and convenience are top among them. But the biggest single reason is switching costs. Who has time to go to the bank, fill out the paperwork, and mail it to the broker?