TL;DR

Banco Santander expects an extra €1 billion in business value over the next two years from AI and data investments, with plans to grow its customer base from 180 million to over 210 million by 2028 while targeting profits above €20 billion.

AI at the core of Santander’s growth strategy

The bank has positioned AI and data investments as a key component of its ONE Transformation strategy, focusing on hyper-personalised customer journeys, AI-powered frontline productivity, and end-to-end process automation. Santander aims to improve its efficiency ratio through product simplification, increased cross-business collaboration, and scaling common technology platforms.

In August, the bank signed a deal with OpenAI to roll out ChatGPT Enterprise to an initial 15,000 employees as part of its push to become an “AI-native” bank. Chief data and AI officer Ricardo Martín Manjón reported that AI initiatives generated over €200 million in savings during 2024 alone.

Measurable operational gains

AI copilots now support more than 40% of Santander’s contact centre interactions. In Spain, Speech Analytics processes 10 million voice calls annually, auto-filling CRM systems and freeing over 100,000 hours per year for higher-value work.

To sustain this momentum, the bank has begun tailoring AI training across roles and markets. A mandatory AI training plan for all employees launches this year.

Looking forward

Santander’s targets put concrete numbers on what many banks promise but rarely quantify. Whether the bank can hit €1 billion in AI-generated value will depend on scaling pilots into production-grade deployments across its global operations.