Madrid, August 13, 2025 – Banco Santander, one of the largest banks in Spain, has made a strategic partnership with OpenAI. This move is done to accelerate the journey to becoming an “AI-native” institution. The goal of this partnership is to embed artificial intelligence (AI) into the fibers of Santander’s organization. This will allow better customer service, improved internal processes and workflows, and better decision-making.
A Vision for AI-Based Operations
Santander’s Chief Data and AI Officer, Ricardo Martín Manjón, explained the bank’s goal perfectly: “We are rethinking how Santander operates, we want every decision made from clean, trusted data, we want to automate customer interactions, and every workflow is smart.”
The bank’s strategy is to modernise its operations to deliver the most personal, agile, and efficient banking possible.
ChatGPT Enterprise Deployment
Santander has quickly rolled out OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise to a large portion of its employees. This signifies a major advancement in its AI-first approach. It took just two months for the bank to roll out ChatGPT Enterprise to nearly 15,000 employees in Europe and the Americas.
By the end of 2025, the bank intends to roll out to 30,000 employees; thus, the use of the new tool would cover approximately 15% of the total workforce. This development demonstrates the bank’s intent to embed AI tools. This move will assist the pathway for enhanced productivity, streamline internal processes, and aid with decision-making.
Key facts:
- ChatGPT Enterprise rolled out to 15,000 employees in a short two months.
- Expansion plans for 30,000 users by the end of 2025.
- Covers approximately 15% of Santander’s global workforce.
- Supports improved productivity and workflows.
Applied AI
Santander’s efforts with AI are already yielding significant and measurable results indicative of the potential benefits that can accrue from AI. In 2024, we saved over €200 million due to the use of AI.
We now have co-pilots that are leveraged over 40% of the time in every contact center. Co-pilots have got three times the efficiency and turnaround time. In Spain, we use Speech analytics to complete more than 10 million voice calls yearly. Additionally, automatically populate CRM’s while making available more than 100,000 hours of agent availability for higher-value work.
Some examples of the impact:
- AI initiatives saved more than €200 million in 2024.
- AI co-pilots were involved in more than 41% of the interactions at contact centers.
- Speech analytics processed more than 10 million calls in Spain every year.
- More than 100,000 hours of agency availability for higher-value work.
Training and Governance
Santander plans to introduce mandatory AI training for employees starting in 2026. All employees will have a module on responsible AI usage, which will equip them with the knowledge on ethics, data privacy, and how to properly adopt AI.
The bank has indicated that they will not use customer data to train any outside AI models to further emphasize its resolve in privacy and ethical governance of AI.
Strategic Partnerships and Ecosystem
Santander’s alliance with OpenAI is only one of a number Santander has established. On top of that, Santander has formed alliances with other big organizations like Microsoft and Amazon, and has built up a network of fast-moving start-ups. Alliances give Santander access to leading-edge AI technologies, tools, and solutions that will aid in extending Santander’s AI capabilities and further build Santander’s digital capabilities.
Future Outlook
In the future, Santander is back to developing agentic AI that will transform front- and back-office operations. What is referred to today as AI Copilot will probably evolve into a bank “decision-making partner”. The banking customer transaction will be fully conversational via a Virtual Assistant. This is in line with the bank’s resolve to not only operationalize smarter solutions and customer delight but a future-proof banking solution.
Key Takeaways & Learnings for CFOs
- AI-enabled cost-efficiencies:
Santander’s AI projects in 2024 yielded over €200 million of savings, provide a useful real-world example of the impacts possible for finance functions by operationalizing AI, and presenting a clear opportunity for CFOs to leverage AI as a strategic lever for cost efficiencies.
- Scalable productivity:
Engaging ChatGPT Enterprise at scale to thousands of employees illustrates a clear path for AI to reduce repetitive tasks, smooth workflows, and capitalize on enabling employees to spend time on value-added work.
- Timely & Relevant Decision-making:
AI-enabled copilots and analytics allowed for data-led decisions at increasing speeds, covering customer service, investment decisions, and back-office processes, and providing finance leaders with timely, relevant, and actionable insights.
- Responsible AI:
Santander’s approach to ethical AI and consideration of data-gathering and data-privacy, raises issues of risk, regulatory compliance, and transparency for CFOs as they consider their journey into AI investments.
- Strategic partnerships:
By working with OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, and other bleeding edge startups, CFOs can navigate established technology ecosystems and explore AI opportunities—for an increased likelihood of success—without taxing their current leading of internal resources.
- Future Financial Leader:
AI as a virtual assistant and agentic will shape a stage where the finance function can navigate increasingly agile and smarter ways of working—transforming the CFO role from an operating steward into a role that routinely integrates AI into both daily operational roles and customer engagements.
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