Banking giant Santander has announced it will launch mandatory AI training for all of its employees starting next year amid plans to scale up the use of the technology across all areas of its business.  

Outlining the latest AI strategy, Banco Santander’s chief data and AI officer, Ricardo Martín Manjón, wrote that the bank wants to embed AI ‘into the DNA’ of its operations, and become an AI native institution.

According to Manjón, as well as mandatory AI training, Santander will quickly begin to integrate the tech across areas like product management, credit, marketing, operations and other core functions, putting AI firmly at the heart of its global platforms.

The reason for this urgency is clear. Manjón said that, last year, AI initiatives saved Santander more than €200 million (£172m), with the technology supporting over 40% of its contact centre interactions.

At its home base in Spain, AI-supported speech analytics helps to process 10 million voice calls a year, which, coupled with auto-filling CRM systems, has freed up more than 100,000 employee hours to focus on ‘higher-value’ work.  

To further capitalise on these savings, the bank plans to ramp up its partnerships with leading AI firms, like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Amazon, as well as regulators, as it grows its AI operations and begins to incorporate AI agents to automate back-office processes across all geographies.

Santander’s ongoing relationship with OpenAI has already proven invaluable, with Manjón stating that in just two months, the bank had rolled out ChatGPT Enterprise to nearly 15,000 employees across Europe and the Americas. 

That number is expected to double by the end of the year, to reach 30,000 users – around 15% of the bank’s entire workforce.

Despite the millions being invested, Manjón said that the bank’s end goal was simple – to make AI ‘invisible’ in the Santander customer experience.

“We’re reimagining Santander’s operations, grounding every decision in clean, trusted data, automating customer interactions and infusing every workflow with intelligence,” said Manjón.

“Santander has used AI for years in areas like fraud detection and customer service. These efforts have delivered real value, and today, they form the foundation on which we’re building our new strategy. 

“By scaling generative and agentic AI, we’re not just optimising processes, we’re redefining what banking can be.”

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Santander is far from the only major financial institution banking on AI for growth, with its major competitors beginning to pick up speed in integrating the tech across core functions.

NatWest, for example, recently appointed its first chief AI research officer, as well as last month unveiling a new, five-year collaboration with Amazon Web Services and Accenture to modernise its systems and data for the AI age.

Likewise, HSBC recently announced plans to accelerate the deployment of AI across its operations, building on its existing genAI assistant, which the bank claims already supports 3 million client interactions, as well as dev tools that have allowed for 15% efficiency in time spent coding.

However, at the core of all these plans, across every bank, is the need for AI training.

As with Santander, HSBC already has group-wide mandatory training covering responsible AI, while earlier this month NatWest partnered with the University of Edinburgh to deliver a comprehensive AI learning programme for its colleagues.

Despite those efforts, studies have found that the financial services sector is facing an AI skills gap. Recent figures from Multiverse, for instance, show that only 46% of financial institutions said they are heavily investing in AI upskilling, while 11% admitted having no formal AI training initiatives at all. 

Image Credit: Santander