BBVA Takes Its Banking Experience Into ChatGPT

Most banks build an app and ask customers to come to them. BBVA is trying something different. The Spanish banking group launched a conversational app directly inside ChatGPT for users in Italy and Germany, letting customers ask questions about accounts, cards and savings products without leaving the assistant, BBVA reported.

The app handles informational queries in natural language. Users can check account conditions, compare card types and explore savings products by asking questions the way they would ask a person. Conversations include direct links to relevant product pages. No separate login. No navigation to a bank-owned interface. The banking experience starts inside the chat.

Meeting Customers Where They Are

The logic behind the move is straightforward. ChatGPT has become one of the primary channels through which people seek information online, BBVA noted. Building a presence inside it is less about technology and more about distribution. A bank that shows up where a customer is already asking questions does not need to convince them to open a separate app first.

Murat Kalkan, global head of digital banks at BBVA, told the bank’s website the integration marks the start of a new chapter where AI becomes part of everyday banking. The current version is designed for product discovery. BBVA expects it to evolve into a digital companion that helps customers navigate financial decisions conversationally over time.

The initiative is part of BBVA’s broader strategic partnership with OpenAI. The bank has already deployed ChatGPT Enterprise to more than 11,000 employees, with plans to expand to 120,000 staff globally, PYMNTS reported. During the initial rollout, 80% of participants accessed the assistant daily and reported saving an average of three hours per week on routine tasks.

Broader Race for Financial Interface

BBVA is not alone in watching where the customer relationship is moving. ChatGPT now lets Pro users connect financial accounts across more than 12,000 institutions through Plaid and receive answers grounded in their actual spending and cash flow, PYMNTS reported. More than 200 million people already ask ChatGPT questions about personal finance every month.

That number is what banks are paying attention to. A conversational interface that sits between a customer and their financial decisions is not neutral infrastructure. It is a relationship layer. The institution that owns that layer, whether a bank, an AI company, or a platform, owns the first point of contact for every financial question a customer asks.

The consumer data reinforces the urgency. Thirty-seven percent of power AI users reported using native AI platforms as their primary tool for managing finances and banking, PYMNTS found. Among mainstream users, that share doubled in a single month. Dedicated AI platforms are gaining ground specifically in finance and banking as a category, while embedded tools inside merchant and bank apps are losing relative standing, PYMNTS Intelligence reported.

BBVA’s ChatGPT app does not move money or execute transactions. It is positioned as a discovery and information tool. But the ambition the bank has described points toward something more integrated over time. For now, BBVA is claiming a position inside the interface before the interface becomes the bank.

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.