BBVA expands strategic partnership with OpenAI to accelerate AI-native banking transformation

BBVA announces expanded long-term partnership with OpenAI, launching a multi-year AI transformation plan that will cover ChatGPT Enterprise for 120,000 employees worldwide, a tenfold increase from previous deployments. This strategy aims to enhance customer experience, optimize operational processes through generative AI, and drive the bank towards full AI-native operations.

This collaboration will push BBVA and OpenAI to jointly develop new AI solutions to revolutionize customer interactions, empower frontline banking staff, accelerate risk analysis, and reshape software development and internal productivity tools. BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres Vila stated that this move will elevate the bank to a new stage in “intelligent, personalized, proactive services,” further strengthening its leadership in digitalization.

The expansion is based on nearly two years of successful cooperation between the two parties. Since May 2024, BBVA has provided ChatGPT accounts to internal employees and quickly scaled up to 11,000 staff. Employee usage exceeds 80%, with an average weekly time savings of nearly three hours per person. Thousands of dedicated GPTs have also been created internally. Now, BBVA is rolling out ChatGPT Enterprise across its employee teams in 25 countries, making it one of the largest generative AI enterprise deployments in the financial industry.

The expanded deployment includes strict security and privacy controls, access to OpenAI’s latest models, and AI proxy tools that can connect to internal banking systems. Both parties will also collaborate to launch structured training programs to ensure the safe and consistent integration of AI tools across various business lines.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted that BBVA is integrating AI into core operations at an unprecedented speed and that this partnership will further enhance the overall banking experience for customers.

In addition to improving internal efficiency, BBVA is also leveraging AI to reshape user service experiences. It has launched Blue, a virtual assistant built on OpenAI models, helping customers manage accounts, credit cards, and daily inquiries using natural language. In the future, BBVA also plans to explore enabling users to interact directly with the bank via ChatGPT.

This deepened collaboration demonstrates how large financial institutions are moving from experimentation to full AI implementation and showcases AI’s feasibility in highly regulated scenarios. With major enterprises like BBVA, Deutsche Telekom, Virgin Atlantic, and Accenture adopting it at scale, OpenAI is accelerating to become one of the fastest-growing business technology platforms worldwide.