Have a real impact across the bank
AI is already being applied to real banking processes. Many solutions start with one country, business, or function, but are designed to be reusable across the group where they can create value. That is one of Santander’s main advantages: local execution, global capabilities, and large-scale influence.
In the operations and risk space, process automation is one of the most obvious examples of how AI can create value at scale. Santander already has more than 280 process automation agents in operation, helping automate manual tasks and supporting end-to-end workflows across areas such as trust, fraud, know your customer (KYC), and operations. In Brazil, AI is being used for card fraud claims, making the process approximately 95% faster, up to 90% automated, and with an error rate of less than 1%.
In customer service, AI has made interactions simpler and more natural. In the UK, banks are starting to deploy AI within voice channels to support card-related queries. The goal is to resolve approximately 240,000 calls (40% of annual call volume) through self-service. This saves customers approximately 26,000 hours and frees up approximately 45,000 hours for service teams to focus on more complex needs. This feature has also been applied to Santander and Open Bank in Spain, with interactions designed to feel natural and simple for customers.
AI is also helping Santander bring more information into customer relationships earlier. In Spain, machine learning and real-time data are used during onboarding to assess whether new customers will get a credit card from day one. The aim is to make the process more timely and relevant for the customer.
We see the same pattern across financial crime, technology, finance, and commercial activity. AI is accelerating analytics and supporting more relevant interactions. Openbank’s AI models process approximately 100,000 anti-money laundering alerts annually. Investigations that once took hours can now be completed in minutes. As of May 2026, more than 17,000 people were already using agent AI in software development, and 40% of all code in June was developed by AI.
AI as a growth engine
AI is not just about efficiency. It also opens up new growth opportunities.
In payments, Getnet uses AI to improve the experience for international customers and merchants, such as customers paying by card abroad or preferring to pay in their home currency. This improves the customer experience, enables merchants to increase conversions, and supports more advanced payment services for cross-border commerce.
This signals a broader shift in agent commerce. As AI agents begin to help customers search, compare, and purchase, payments will need to adapt to the processes that will increasingly be aided and ultimately initiated by AI. Santander is the first bank in Europe to test AI agent payments with Mastercard and the first bank in Latin America to test it with Visa.
Bringing AI to all employees
The next step was to make this feature available to everyone. To date, around 40,000 employees across the group are actively using AI tools. Starting today, Santander is extending AI access to all 185,000 employees worldwide.
For many employees, this means using AI in everyday productivity tools to prepare analyses, quickly find information, summarize documents, improve customer conversations, or simplify internal processes.
Access is just the starting point. Being AI-first means helping people incorporate AI into their daily work: understanding what AI can do, where its limits are, how to see the output, and how to apply AI responsibly. Through training, hands-on coaching, and learning communities, employees can share stories, build confidence, and accelerate adoption across markets and sectors.
But our AI-first strategy goes beyond one tool. Microsoft Copilot supports everyday employee productivity, including an advanced Microsoft 365 Copilot experience powered by cutting-edge AI models. Santander’s broader AI strategy uses a secure multi-provider approach for more specialized functions, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, startups and other technology partners, and G42 for AI-enabled banking solutions.
Scale, trust and strategic direction
Santander already has a clear AI strategy, measurable impact and the scale to turn selected capabilities into value for the entire group. We are not starting with theory. AI is already improving processes, supporting teams, and creating new opportunities across banks.
AI becomes truly powerful when it is gradually integrated into how we serve customers, support analytics, speed up processes, and get work done. It is already happening across Santander, within a clear ethical, legal, cybersecurity and risk framework. We do not share customer data externally to train third-party models, and our AI-enabled processes operate within a secure environment.
This is an opportunity to move forward with focus, discipline, and ambition. We know where we want to compete, we have proven impact and we have the scale to embed AI as part of how Santander delivers for our customers every day.
