How BBVA is scaling AI from pilot to practice across the org
BBVA is moving from AI pilots to enterprise-wide adoption, embedding AI into day-to-day work across teams to improve productivity, decision-making, and customer outcomes.
Results
3 hours
saved per employee per week
Results
83%
weekly active usage
Results
80%+
Efficiency improvements in workflow tests
Results
20,000+
Custom GPTs created across the bank, with around 4,000 GPTs used frequently
Founded in 1857, BBVA operates across Europe, Mexico, South America, Türkiye, and the U.S., serving tens of millions of customers. Long recognized as one of the world’s most innovative financial institutions, BBVA is now applying AI at global scale—not as a pilot, but as a new way of working and a core capability across the organization.
“We’ve been having a lot of debates on how to make AI part of our business strategy, not a tech effort that sits on the side,” says Antonio Bravo, Global Head of Data & AI, BBVA.
We sat down with Antonio Bravo and Elena Alfaro, Head of Global AI Adoption, to hear how the bank is scaling AI adoption across teams and business units.
"We deployed initially to 3,000 employees, then very quickly jumped to 11,000 employees."
Inside the rollout
BBVA built its AI program on trust, governance, and structured learning—enabling scale without compromising security. “We created this atmosphere of being in a safe place to learn and to use AI,” says Alfaro.
Rather than pushing experimentation underground, BBVA brought it into a trusted environment and reduced shadow-AI risk by giving employees secure tools and clear guardrails. “Instead of shadow AI… we gave them a platform that was safe so they could start experimenting,” Alfaro notes, “and we gave specific training for 250 leaders, including our CEO and chairman.”
- ChatGPT Enterprise deployed across teams globally
- Security, legal, and compliance aligned from the start
- Thousands of Custom GPTs created by employees
- 250 senior leaders trained, including the CEO and chairman
This structured approach is now showing results at scale.
In Peru, one internally built assistant is now used by more than 3,000 employees, reducing query handling time from around 7.5 minutes to about 1 minute—an ~80% reduction. Adoption is expanding across the network.
Once employees experienced value, engagement accelerated organically—to the point where some joked that if ChatGPT were taken away, they’d “have to leave.”
“Once you start using it, it's very sticky and… you feel it helps you a lot.”
Results at a glance
- ~3 hours saved per employee per week
- 83% weekly active usage
- Efficiency improvements up to 80%+ in workflow tests
- 20,000+ Custom GPTs created across the bank, with around 4,000 GPTs used frequently
Leadership lessons
- Leadership sets the tone: 250 senior leaders, including the chairman and CEO, learned hands-on.
- Build governance as a foundation: Security, legal, and compliance were partners from day one—enabling scale, not slowing it.
- Turn shadow AI into safe AI: Create secure environments for experimentation—always with humans in the loop.
- Scale early enough to see the signal: Starting at meaningful scale surfaced real evidence quickly.
- Empower the front lines: Teams closest to the work created thousands of GPTs now shared across the bank.
What’s next
BBVA has rolled out a roadmap, known as ‘The Eight,’ aimed at ramping up the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to evolve the way the bank interacts with customers, manages risk, automates processes, and strengthens its technological capabilities. This decisive step forward in its transformation will enable the bank to radically improve its range of products and services through innovation and to structurally enhance its ways of working to boost value creation.
As part of their strategic alliance, OpenAI and BBVA will actively collaborate in the development of ‘The Eight.’
