Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Status update summary

AI strategy and deployment

• AI aims to personalize proactive advice, simplify customer decisions, automate workflows and shift employees toward higher-value work; a bank-wide agenda spans six agent-based “robots” and is supported by 4,011 data specialists, scientists and ML engineers.

• Blue demos covered account insights, consumer-loan advice and insurance claims; rollout through 2027 includes employees first, then clients in Spain, Mexico and South America, alongside contact-center and banker capabilities.

• Early pilots: prioritized voice intents resolve 90% of calls end-to-end in Peru and Mexico; Blue filters >50% of relationship-manager chats; financial-program preparation time fell 30% and claims processing time 80%.

• 75% of employees use AI recurrently, saving 2.4 hours weekly per user; software-development productivity rose 28%, with gains close to 30% in some areas.

Scaling AI safely

• The Frame provides a shared model to build, deploy, manage and govern agents, with value management, system connections, guardrails, monitoring, resilience and security.

• Agent controls include access limits, evaluation, monitoring, human approval and security; retail credit underwriting remains unexplored, while wholesale risk tools support analysts with humans in the loop.

• AI investment is assessed against each agent’s value; provider agreements typically reserve compute capacity for two to three years rather than fixing token prices.

• Risks include disintermediation, margin pressure, unreliable outputs, fraud and cybersecurity threats; the response emphasizes trusted relationships, responsible controls and expanded resilience, with AI energy use considered in net-zero plans.

Technology and resilience

• Two-thirds of online transactions ran on next-generation architecture or in cloud in 2025, avoiding EUR 200 million in annual costs versus a no-modernization scenario.

• Target: ~90% of online transactions on next-generation technology by end-2029; transactionality is projected to grow 27% annually while processing expenses rise 5%, with a further EUR 100 million lower projected cost base versus no modernization.

• Digital engagement strengthened year over year: monthly active users +5.3%, sales +10.1% and transactions +14.3%; the app includes Blue, financial coaching and quick payments.

• Retail digital service levels reached 99.9% in 2025; relevant IT incidents fell 53% and recovery times shortened 52% versus 2023.