BBVA and OpenAI Establish AI Collaboration to Transform Banking

BBVA, one of Europe’s leading banking groups, has taken a decisive step into the artificial intelligence era by formalising a strategic collaboration with OpenAI that aims to transform global banking operations and customer engagement through advanced AI systems.

The alliance—announced by BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres Vila and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—represents a multi-year programme of joint innovation, built on nearly two years of cooperation that began with earlier pilots and gradual AI adoption within the bank. The expanded partnership goes far beyond early experimentation, positioning BBVA as a pioneer in embedding generative AI into core banking processes at scale.

This initiative arrives at a moment of intense transformation in financial services, where competition, customer expectations, and technological sophistication are driving banks to adopt new frameworks for efficiency, personalisation, and risk management. Instead of treating AI as an experimental add-on, BBVA and OpenAI are collectively architecting a future in which intelligent systems augment nearly all elements of banking operations.

A Strategic Alliance With Long-Term Ambition

According to BBVA’s official announcement, the strategic alliance with OpenAI is designed to accelerate the bank’s existing AI strategy by co-creating solutions that deliver tangible value to both customers and employees.

OpenAI will play a central role in advancing BBVA’s AI roadmap, providing preferred access to state-of-the-art models, expert research, and engineering collaboration. This goes beyond typical software licensing: teams from both organisations will work closely on joint objectives and shared investments, with the aim of embedding AI capabilities across the bank’s global operations.

One of the most visible components of the expanded partnership is the enterprise-wide rollout of ChatGPT Enterprise to more than 120,000 BBVA employees—a nearly tenfold increase from its earlier deployment. The expansion comes after a successful pilot involving 11,000 staff, where early users reported significant time savings on routine tasks.

This broad deployment is among the largest corporate implementations of generative AI in the financial services sector, indicating BBVA’s commitment to operational transformation and workforce productivity improvements powered by AI.

AI Integration: From Employee Productivity to Customer Experience

Under the expanded collaboration, BBVA and OpenAI will develop a range of use cases that span internal workflows and customer-facing services. One key focus is intelligent conversational assistants capable of enhancing how customers interact with digital banking platforms. Such solutions could deliver highly personalised support—anticipating client needs, simplifying financial tasks, and streamlining everyday banking communications.

BBVA has already demonstrated early steps toward this vision. Its AI-powered virtual assistant Blue, built with OpenAI models, assists customers with account management and product queries in a natural language interface—suggesting how future banking experiences could centre on conversational and intuitive AI interaction.

On the employee side, the integration of ChatGPT Enterprise is reshaping internal processes. Beyond automating routine tasks, AI tools are embedded into software development workflows, risk analysis, and operational planning. The goal is not simply to reduce manual effort but to elevate strategic decision-making and operational insights across the organisation.

The bank’s global AI adoption journey underscores core principles of safe and responsible deployment. Early implementations were built on a framework of governance, security controls, and structured learning processes that enable broad usage while minimizing risks such as shadow IT or compliance gaps.

Transforming Banking at Scale: Data, AI, and Operational Efficiency

BBVA’s AI strategy, fuelled by the partnership with OpenAI, marks a shift from pilot programmes to enterprise-level transformation. Built on a foundation of data and intelligence, the bank’s AI framework is designed to enhance not just individual productivity but also core business operations.

From risk modelling and compliance workflows to customer segmentation and product recommendations, AI systems are being woven into previously manual or fragmented processes. Early internal metrics—from pilot phases reported by BBVA—indicate meaningful efficiency gains, with employees saving hours per week and generating thousands of custom AI tools tailored to specific operational needs. OpenAI

More than that, the collaboration enables BBVA to embed AI into its software development lifecycle—to build automation, generate intelligent insights, and reduce time and cost barriers that have historically slowed innovation in complex banking environments.

Creating an AI-Native Bank: Vision and Future Roadmap

In his remarks on the collaboration, Carlos Torres Vila highlighted BBVA’s journey from a digital and mobile banking pioneer to a bank entering the AI era with bold ambition. The alliance with OpenAI is framed not as a tactical experiment but as a strategic evolution—positioning the bank to deliver smarter, more proactive, and more personalised services than ever before.

The relationship extends beyond technology to organisational transformation. BBVA plans to create dedicated teams working directly with OpenAI’s engineering, research, and solutions units, reinforcing structured collaboration to accelerate innovation cycles.

Beyond workforce deployment and customer-centric tools, the partnership also aims to develop systems capable of optimising risk analysis and enhancing internal operations in areas such as software engineering, compliance verification, and even creating what the bank describes as a digital “alter ego”—an AI personal assistant that can learn an employee’s working style and perform tasks with approval and oversight.

Together, these efforts suggest that BBVA is not merely adopting tools but is reshaping its operational DNA around AI capabilities—potentially setting a benchmark for other global banks considering similar strategies.

Industry Impact: Setting a New Standard for Banking and AI

BBVA’s expanded collaboration with OpenAI is part of a broader trend in which financial institutions are moving from isolated AI use cases to comprehensive, strategic integration. While many banks have explored AI pilots, few have formalised multi-year partnerships with leading AI developers at this level of scale and ambition.

This alliance offers several potential industry implications:

• Deep AI integration across operations could become a differentiator for global banking leaders aiming to streamline costs and improve precision.
• Customer experience standards may be elevated as conversational AI redefines how clients interact with financial services.
• Workforce transformation is likely to accelerate as AI tools augment productivity and enable employees to focus on higher-value tasks.
• Risk and compliance models could be reshaped by real-time, intelligent systems that continuously analyse patterns and detect anomalies.

BBVA’s approach underscores how banks can move past lip service to AI and embed real, practical, and strategic value into their business models—while also balancing governance, security, and regulatory requirements.

Conclusion

The strategic alliance between BBVA and OpenAI marks a significant milestone in banking’s adoption of generative artificial intelligence. With its expanded deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise across 120,000 employees, co-creation of AI solutions for customers and staff, and deep collaboration between engineering and research teams, BBVA is moving from experimentation to large-scale transformation.

This partnership illustrates how a traditional bank can evolve into an AI-native institution, where advanced intelligence is woven into products, platforms, operations, and customer experiences. As the collaboration unfolds, it has the potential to reshape not only BBVA’s trajectory but also broader expectations for how banks compete and innovate in the digital age.

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