The NAGA Group AG, the Xetra-listed fintech behind the Naga One financial app, said today (Thursday) it is building its next phase of growth around AI, with the technology now handling most of its chat-based customer support without human agents and allowing the company to run its marketing function with about a fifth fewer people.

The update lands one week before NAGA publishes unaudited first-quarter results, and follows a sharp rebound in its Hamburg-listed shares.

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NAGA Shrinks Marketing Team by 20% and Credits AI for the Output

NAGA said AI fully resolved approximately 66% of chat-based customer support interactions in the first quarter with no human involvement, and that it plans to extend similar automation to email.

The company also said AI-driven tools lifted marketing creative output by three to five times, while the department operates with around 20% fewer staff than before. Partner onboarding, according to the company, has been compressed from about 10 days to roughly one day, and engineering cycles have shortened from multiple weeks to single days.

None of these figures were independently audited in the release, and the company did not disclose the methodology behind its productivity comparisons or the baseline against which the engineering and onboarding gains were measured.

AI Rollout Spans Support, Marketing, Engineering

Chief Executive Octavian Patrascu framed the technology as something broader than a cost lever, although much of the disclosed impact centers on headcount and process efficiency. "We already see that AI is much more than an efficiency tool," Patrascu said in the statement, adding that it is "fundamentally changing how we scale our business."

The company said AI-enabled self-serve analytics have also been rolled out internally, giving departments what the firm describes as faster access to operational data for management decisions.

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NAGA also flagged an AI-assisted layer inside the trading environment as part of its 2026 product roadmap, alongside further work on social trading, crypto and simplified investment products aimed at broadening its appeal beyond active traders.

The Hamburg-based firm reports more than 2.5 million registered users on its platform, which combines CFD trading, stock and ETF investing, crypto, copy trading and neo-banking functions.

Broader Shift Toward AI-First Brokerage

NAGA's announcement arrives as retail brokers across Europe and the Middle East reposition their operations around artificial intelligence. Technology vendor Tools for Brokers found that AI is the top planned investment area in broker tech budgets for 2026, with 28% of surveyed firms ranking it first, ahead of liquidity bridges at 20%.

Competitors have moved in similar directions. eToro introduced Agent Portfolios earlier this year, a feature that lets users connect their own AI agents to live trading accounts through scoped API keys, and reported a 46% jump in AI tool usage on its platform in 2025. MENA-focused broker CFI has embedded an AI Trading Assistant inside its retail platform, while third-party vendors like Bridgewise have run AI research pilots across more than 300,000 CFD traders through broker partners.

Not every AI story in the sector has held up on closer inspection. FinanceMagnates.com reported in February that some rivals, including FXCM and eToro, had cited AI to justify large layoffs in a trend that critics labeled "AI-washing," with Tradu, the sister brand of FXCM, subsequently shutting its CFD offering.

Xetra Shares Rebound From Record Low

The AI pitch comes after an unusually volatile stretch for NAGA's stock. Shares of The NAGA Group AG (XETR: N4G0) touched an all-time low of €1.31 on April 9, according to TradingView data, then closed at €3.19 on April 15.

Thursday also started positive, with further strengthening to €5.50 and an intraday high of €6.00, which combined from the April low represents a gain of 350%.

In December, NAGA consolidated its shares in a 10-for-1 reverse split, cutting registered share capital from €232.8 million to €23.3 million and collapsing the share count from roughly 232.8 million to 23.3 million. Management at the time framed the move as a technical step meant to place the share price in a range closer to peers and to make the stock eligible for institutional mandates that restrict purchases of very low-priced securities.

NAGA's shift to an AI-first operating model follows a year the company itself described as structurally challenging. Full-year 2025 group revenue came in at €62.4 million, slightly below €63.2 million in 2024, although the figure rose 3.5% to €65.4 million on a foreign-exchange -adjusted basis. EBITDA fell to €3.3 million from €9 million a year earlier, with the company citing low market volatility, spread compression and weaker copy trading activity.

For 2026, the Hamburg-based group has guided for revenue of between €68 million and €75 million and EBITDA of €10 million to €15 million, a range that implies a sharp margin recovery if hit.

Patrascu told investors in February that NAGA was "pushing to an AI-first approach across marketing, operations, business growth, and execution," a line Thursday's update is effectively meant to substantiate.