The deal aims to transform customer experience and operational efficiency across the bank by placing AI
BBVA and OpenAI have announced a strategic partnership aimed at transforming customer experience and operational efficiency across the bank by placing artificial intelligence (AI) at the core of its products and operations.
The agreement was unveiled at OpenAI’s headquarters by BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres Vila and OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman. Under the partnership, BBVA plans to integrate AI across its global businesses to deliver more personalized banking services and boost employee productivity.(By the way I have a story here about Evreka, a Turkish startup, being Garanti BBVA’s startup accelarator program)
The deal follows nearly two years of collaboration and includes joint development efforts and investments by both teams. OpenAI will support the acceleration of BBVA’s AI strategy, helping the bank redesign customer interactions, develop new ways of working and streamline internal processes.
A central element of the agreement gives BBVA priority access to OpenAI’s most advanced AI models, expertise and engineering capabilities. OpenAI teams will work closely with BBVA on solution development, including an intelligent conversational assistant designed to support customers’ daily financial needs and set a new standard for banking interactions. Additional tools will be developed to help relationship managers deliver fully personalized services.
The partnership also targets employee experience. BBVA and OpenAI plan to collaborate on systems that simplify risk analysis, transform software development and automate daily workflows. One initiative under consideration is a digital “alter ego” for employees that can learn individual work styles, recall projects and perform authorized tasks.
As part of the rollout, BBVA will expand access to ChatGPT Enterprise to more than 120,000 employees, one of the largest corporate AI deployments to date. In a pilot involving 11,000 staff, about 80% reported using the tool daily, with average time savings of roughly three hours per week.
BBVA is also exploring direct integration of its products and services into ChatGPT and has demonstrated a ChatGPT-enabled application for its digital banks in Italy and Germany.
“We have been pioneers in digital and mobile banking, and now we are entering the AI era with an even more ambitious vision,” Torres Vila said. “This partnership will speed up the natural integration of AI across the entire bank, enabling smarter, more proactive and fully personalized banking experiences that anticipate customer needs.”
Altman announced BBVA illustrates how a large financial institution can adopt AI quickly and at scale. “By expanding our collaboration, we’re supporting BBVA in putting our technology at the center of its products and operations, strengthening the end-to-end banking experience for customers,” he said.
İlker Kuruöz, Deputy General Manager at Garanti BBVA
Garanti BBVA, BBVA’s Turkish unit, Deputy CEO İlker Kuruöz said AI has become a strategic lever reshaping how banking services are designed and delivered. He pointed to the bank’s AI-powered virtual assistant, Ugi, available on Garanti BBVA Mobile, as a key example. Upgraded with generative AI and large language models, Ugi goes beyond standard chatbot functions by tracking conversational context, scanning real-time data sources and producing personalized responses, he emphasized.
Kuruöz added that pilot projects launched last year deployed generative AI solutions across areas ranging from software development and risk analysis to customer engagement and employee experience. He said the deepening BBVA–OpenAI partnership is expected to accelerate the scaling of both customer-facing tools such as Ugi and internal assistants and automation systems for employees.
