Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria (NYSE:BBVA) outlined its artificial intelligence strategy, technology modernization plans and growth priorities for Spain during its second BBVA Strategic Talks event in Madrid.
Chair Carlos Torres Vila said the bank views AI as an opportunity to create value for customers and shareholders by improving personalization, simplifying financial decisions, increasing employee productivity and lowering the cost to serve customers. He also said AI will intensify competition and put pressure on margins, as customers gain greater ability to compare financial alternatives.
AI strategy centers on agents and scalable deployment
Antonio Bravo, BBVA’s Global Head of AI Transformation, said the bank’s business is well positioned for AI because banking relies heavily on data and analytical models in activities ranging from onboarding and cross-selling to credit underwriting.
Bravo described BBVA’s initial AI agenda, called “The Eight,” as six groups of AI “robots” supported by two underlying pillars: data readiness and the technical capabilities needed to build and operate AI agents. The initiatives address digital client interactions, banker support, wholesale-risk processes, back-office operations, software development and tools for employees.
Among the examples shown was Blue, a conversational digital assistant designed to help customers analyze spending, explore consumer-loan options and submit insurance claims. Bravo said BBVA plans to release a new version of Blue to employees in the coming weeks, followed by a rollout to customers in Spain, Mexico and countries in South America and Latin America through the rest of the year and early next year.
The bank also demonstrated an AI Banker tool for Corporate & Investment Banking and an agent that can draft financial programs used in credit processes. Bravo said the latter process can take an agent up to 30 minutes, compared with approximately 25 hours of work by a human across several days. The system provides confidence scores, source references and alerts for analyst review, he said.
BBVA reported early results from AI deployments, including:
- Some customer-service intents in Peru and Mexico absorbing 90% of contact-center calls end to end.
- Early versions of Blue filtering 50% of chat conversations previously handled by relationship managers in Spain.
- A 30% reduction in the time required to produce a financial program and client rating, with a target to reach an 80% reduction.
- An 80% reduction in claims-management time.
- Seventy-five percent of BBVA employees using AI regularly, with self-reported savings of 2.4 hours.
- Productivity improvements approaching 30% in certain parts of the software-development life cycle.
Bravo said BBVA’s next phase, called “The Frame,” is intended to industrialize the development and governance of AI agents across the bank. The framework will address technical environments, data access, system connections, guardrails, monitoring, security, resilience and value management, according to Bravo.
He also acknowledged risks from AI-driven competition, cybersecurity threats and potential impacts on asset quality as industries adopt new technology. BBVA’s response, he said, will focus on trust, controlled deployment, human oversight and monitoring of agents’ performance.
Technology modernization and cost targets
Carlos Casas, BBVA’s Global Head of Engineering, said the bank’s technology strategy rests on digital channels, a modern technology stack, global development capabilities and resilience. He said approximately two-thirds of BBVA’s online transactionality currently runs through its next-generation cloud-based platform.
Casas said the modernization effort has reduced BBVA’s annual technology cost base by about €200 million compared with what it would have been without the transformation. The bank expects its cost base to be roughly an additional €100 million lower once it expands next-generation technology to about 90% of transactionality by the end of 2029.
“The fact that more and more we are more efficient and productive when running our technology, that is one of the factors that it is helping in the projected cost-to-income” target, Casas said.
CFO Gonzalo Rodríguez said BBVA’s total IT cash outlay was €4.2 billion last year and will be higher this year. IT costs represented 27% of the group’s overall cost base in 2025, up from 21% in 2019, he said. Rodríguez said BBVA remains committed to its strategic-plan target of a 35% cost-to-income ratio after reporting 37.8% in the second quarter.
BBVA Spain cites customer growth and profitability
Peio Belausteguigoitia, Country Head of BBVA Spain, said Spain’s macroeconomic setting remains favorable, citing GDP growth above neighboring European countries, strong private consumption, employment growth and relatively low household and business leverage.
He said BBVA Spain’s customer-focused and multichannel strategy has helped drive customer satisfaction, acquisition, transactionality and profitability. The bank has expanded remote and hybrid sales capabilities to more than 4,700 employees, while 26% of its enterprise-segment sales force works in transactional remote banking, according to Belausteguigoitia.
BBVA Spain recorded a 72% Net Promoter Score for its remote model, he said. The unit also reported a 17.4% market share in payrolls, up 340 basis points from 2019, and a 19% share in person-to-person payments. BBVA’s share of Bizum payments in e-commerce was 58%, he said.
For 2025, BBVA Spain reported profit of €4.14 billion, return on risk-weighted assets of 20.2% and a 33.3% efficiency ratio, according to Belausteguigoitia. He said the bank intends to continue focusing on growth opportunities in insurance, private banking and enterprise banking, while using AI to improve client service, risk processes and banker productivity.
On competition from digital banks, BBVA executives said the key issue is retaining primary-bank relationships rather than competing solely on deposit pricing. Rodríguez said payroll flows, direct debits, cards and payment activity help strengthen customer relationships and reduce disintermediation risk.
About Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria (NYSE:BBVA)
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, SA (NYSE: BBVA) is a Spanish multinational financial services group headquartered in Bilbao, Spain. The bank provides retail and commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth management, asset management, payments and insurance services to individuals, businesses, institutions and public-sector clients.
BBVA traces its origins to Banco de Bilbao, founded in 1857. The modern group was formed through the merger of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya and Argentaria in 1999.
