Madrid, May 14, 2025 — Global banking giant Banco Santander has significantly expanded its partnership with OpenAI, securing 15,000 ChatGPT Enterprise licenses in a bold move to embed generative AI across its international operations. The announcement follows a year-long pilot that demonstrated substantial productivity gains and sparked widespread employee adoption across business units.
From Pilot to Strategic Integration
Santander began testing ChatGPT Enterprise in mid-2024 with an initial 4,000 licenses distributed among technology, legal, and marketing teams in Spain and Brazil. According to internal assessments, the AI assistant saved users an average of 3.2 hours per week, with frequent use cases including code debugging, financial modeling, content generation, and document analysis.
“We are witnessing the emergence of a new digital co-worker,” said Maria del Castillo, Chief Innovation Officer at Santander Group. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. AI is no longer experimental—it’s operational.”
AI Assistants Built In-House
During the pilot, Santander employees built over 4,500 task-specific assistants using ChatGPT’s custom GPTs feature. These include bots designed for KYC document summarization, internal policy translation, ESG report generation, and even customer sentiment analysis for marketing optimization.
To support this wave of innovation, Santander established a cross-functional AI community called “SantanderGPT Lab”, where employees share tools, hold regular workshops, and review AI use cases for regulatory compliance and risk.
“Security and trust are non-negotiable in financial services,” noted Alejandro Moya, Head of AI Governance at Santander. “Every assistant goes through a security validation pipeline to ensure data confidentiality.”
ChatGPT in Banking: A Growing Trend
Santander’s expanded deployment comes amid a broader wave of generative AI adoption in banking. Earlier this week, BBVA announced the growth of its ChatGPT Enterprise user base from 3,300 to 11,000, citing similar productivity metrics. HSBC, ING, and Societe Generale are also reported to be piloting AI tools from vendors including Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.
Market analysts at Gartner estimate that by the end of 2025, over 40% of Tier 1 banks will have integrated large language models into at least one core operational function, ranging from internal knowledge management to real-time regulatory compliance checks.
Ethical Deployment and Regulatory Readiness
In anticipation of upcoming EU AI Act regulations and evolving GDPR compliance obligations, Santander has also formed an internal AI Ethics Board. The board evaluates high-risk applications and oversees model interpretability, fairness, and auditability across departments.
“We’re committed to using AI responsibly and inclusively,” said Dr. Elena Morales, Chair of the AI Ethics Board. “This isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about creating equitable access to advanced tools across our global workforce.”
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