Spain-based financial institution Santander has entered into a collaborative agreement with OpenAI to support its AI-first development strategy.
The partnership aims to assist Santader’s vision to become an AI-native bank, with the financial institution planning to enable decisions, processes, and interactions through data and intelligent technology. Santander intends to modernise and support the shift toward tailored, agile, and efficient banking. The move focuses on reshaping how the bank serves its customers and unlocking value. By merging AI with the human intelligence of its digital bank branches, Santander seeks to improve its position in the industry.
Advancing banking through AI
Before this announcement, Santander had leveraged AI in areas such as fraud detection and customer service, with these efforts facilitating the foundation for its new strategy. By scaling generative and agentic AI, the bank aims to optimise processes while also augmenting the overall banking experience.
Santander’s strategy includes three key pillars, such as:
- AI integrated in all the businesses, embedded in product management, credit, marketing, service, operations, and other core functions;
- AI at the core of global platforms;
- AI ecosystem as a growth supporter, powered by collaborations with OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, and a startup community.
Furthermore, partnering with OpenAI enabled Santander to launch ChatGPT Enterprise to approximately 15,000 employees across the group in Europe and the Americas. The bank expects to reach 30,000 users by the end of 2025, covering nearly 15% of its workforce. Santander intends to accelerate the adoption of AI, with early use cases including investment copilots with real-time strategy suggestions, tailored customer journeys, and AI agents automating back-office processes across all geographies.
As part of Santander’s 2026-2027 roadmap, the bank includes expanding agentic AI, improving front- and back-office processes, and allowing fully conversational banking. Also, AI copilots will become decision-making partners and virtual assistants, focusing on resolving transactions for customers. Santander will also roll out a mandatory AI training plan for all employees starting in 2026, with one of its core modules centring on Responsible AI, underlining its commitment to ethical and secure AI adoption across the organisation.
