BBVA and OpenAI sign strategic AI alliance to transform digital banking

Spanish bank BBVA has entered a far‑reaching strategic alliance with OpenAI aimed at embedding generative AI across its products, operations and workforce. Under the agreement, announced by BBVA chair Carlos Torres Vila and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters, the two companies will co‑create solutions ranging from a conversational financial assistant for customers to tools that help relationship managers deliver more personalized service. BBVA will gain preferred access to OpenAI’s most advanced models and expertise, and plans to roll out ChatGPT Enterprise to more than 120,000 employees after a pilot in which 11,000 staff used the tool daily and reported saving several hours a week on routine tasks. The bank is also working to let customers interact with BBVA services directly from within ChatGPT, effectively treating the AI assistant as another front door to its digital banking stack. For OpenAI, the deal cements another flagship partnership in European finance and offers a large‑scale testbed for AI‑augmented knowledge work inside a regulated institution.