BBVA, a global financial institution founded in 1857, has formed a strategic alliance with OpenAI to transform banking around artificial intelligence. More than 100,000 employees globally now use ChatGPT Enterprise (OpenAI News), making BBVA one of the largest enterprise adopters of generative AI in the financial sector. The collaboration evolved by the end of 2025 into a broader strategic alliance centered around "The Eight," BBVA's AI transformation roadmap for redesigning banking end-to-end—from customer experience and commercial banking to risk, operations, software development, and employee productivity (OpenAI News).
BBVA's adoption strategy centers on three pillars: trust, governance, and structured learning. Employees have created more than 20,000 custom GPTs tailored to specialized workflows, with approximately 4,000 used frequently by teams around the world (OpenAI News). Specific use cases demonstrate measurable impact: in Peru, more than 3,000 employees use an internal AI assistant that has reduced average query handling times from approximately 7.5 minutes to around 1 minute—an efficiency improvement of roughly 80% (OpenAI News). Across the deployed workforce, 70%+ show weekly active usage, and employees save approximately 3 hours per week (OpenAI News). For commerce practitioners, BBVA's approach illustrates how to scale AI securely within a highly regulated organization while enabling employees to become active participants in business transformation rather than treating AI as a standalone technology initiative.
Leadership participation accelerated adoption: 250 senior leaders, including the CEO and chairman, received specific training and are among the company's most active ChatGPT users (OpenAI News). The bank's long-term vision extends beyond efficiency gains to creating a more proactive, intelligent, and personalized banking experience capable of anticipating customer needs, signaling a shift in how financial institutions design customer engagement in an AI-native era.