“Artificial Intelligence Is Constantly Evolving, and That Makes It Both a Challenge and an Opportunity” — This statement was made by Elena Alfaro, head of global AI adoption at BBVA, during her presentation titled State of the Art of AI and Use Cases at BBVA, delivered at the first Funds Society Leaders Summit recently held in Madrid.
What Alfaro means is that “AI is constantly evolving, with impact across various sectors; anyone who feels it’s moving incredibly fast is not mistaken—this is a full-blown revolution.” Just one data point proves the case: ChatGPT has been the fastest-adopted technology to date, reaching 100 million users just two months after its launch. Moreover, the expert stated, “ChatGPT is the most successful product in history.”
In fact, Alfaro noted, today, OpenAI (the company that owns ChatGPT) is generating 700 million active users per week, of which around 20 million are paying users. The BBVA representative added that if the user bases of the main competitors in this field are added, there are likely more than 1 billion generative AI users worldwide. Furthermore, considering that AI is part of a technology ecosystem born in the U.S., it has taken only three years to reach 90% of users outside the U.S. (compared to the 23 years it took the internet).
Double-Digit Investment
The BBVA representative also pointed out that the drop in costs has been dramatic since its launch three years ago. This, combined with user interest, has led to spectacular growth in every sense. Reflecting this trend, job openings in the U.S. IT sector related to AI have surged by 448%, while non-AI IT jobs have contracted by 9%.
That said, hyperscalers have doubled down on their AI development investments. Alfaro recalled that the so-called Big Six increased their capex by 63% from 2023 to 2024—a figure that was already high, reaching $212 billion.
Alfaro did not shy away from acknowledging that it’s unclear whether all the major players in this race are generating profits. She cited NVIDIA as the obvious beneficiary—thanks to GPU sales—and Accenture for the success of its AI-related services business line. Additionally, she stated that OpenAI is expected to report revenues of $12 billion by the end of 2025. Even so, the expert explained that major tech firms will continue doubling down on their investments because “they are making a long-term bet on this technology.”
Five Relevant Trends in the Financial Industry
Given that something that happened in April already feels “almost like the Pleistocene” in this fast-moving space, Alfaro outlined five trends that are already impacting the financial industry and that users should understand and familiarize themselves with.
Expansion of Reasoning Capabilities in Language Models
Alfaro explained that we are now dealing with AIs that respond versus AIs that reason—and the final result can differ greatly depending on the task assigned. Reasoning AIs can break down problems through chains of thought, follow logical steps, take time to reason, and flag doubts when needed (she cited GPT-5, Gemini 2.5Pro, and Claude 3.7–4 as examples). On the other hand, non-reasoning bots offer faster responses without verifying or cross-checking information (GPT-4, Gemini 1, Grok 2, Deepseek Base). “This reasoning capability needs to keep advancing because otherwise, automating complex tasks will remain limited,” reflected the BBVA representative.Multimodality
This refers to the shift from generative AI being text-only to now encompassing images, video, voice, music, or combinations thereof—capable of generating diverse outputs.Evolution from Assistants to Agents
We are moving from bots that respond to human prompts to AIs that can be given goals and execute them autonomously. Alfaro forecasts that, eventually, each person could have their own “AI Chief of Staff” — capable of coordinating a group of AIs to carry out complex tasks.Integration of Data and Tools
Currently, ChatGPT typically isn’t connected to internal corporate data sources (like Salesforce, Google Drive, Outlook, etc.), but “there is significant progress in enabling connectivity to integrate company data sources or apps.” She stressed the importance of this integration for task automation and added, “Security and compliance teams will play a fundamental role in this integration.”Growth of No-Code Tools
“From now on, we’ll be able to do more complex things,” said Alfaro, citing Google Flows, a new tool that helps chain together processes, as an example of what’s coming next.
AI Use Cases at BBVA
Finally, the head of global AI adoption at BBVA shared that the bank is developing a portfolio of various projects across areas such as risk, operations, and software development.
One example is the mobile banking app Futura, which adapts to each user based on their activity and finances—for example, by identifying their most frequent operations and offering shortcuts. It also includes Blue, a chatbot similar to ChatGPT that answers user questions ranging from product inquiries to detailed personal finance queries.
BBVA is also engaged in a highly ambitious project grounded in the philosophy of AI adoption among employees: “This is a people project, not just a technology deployment project. Technology is very important, but it’s people who must adopt it,” she emphasized.
Launched in May last year, the initiative began by making AI capabilities available to a growing number of employees to help boost productivity, encourage creativity, and enable them to build their own assistants. The results, according to Alfaro, have been “extraordinary”: the program has achieved nearly 90% user retention and led to the creation of over 5,000 functional applications by people with no coding experience. Around 1,000 high-value use cases have already been identified and are being implemented, leveraging solutions from OpenAI and Google.
Conclusion: Better In Than Out
In conclusion, Alfaro emphasized that in the face of this revolution, “it’s better to be in than out; staying out doesn’t make much sense.”
She closed her talk on an optimistic note, asserting that humans won’t be left out of the equation. Instead, their role will evolve from task executors to orchestrators—though with important nuances: “We should always analyze tasks from the perspective of what makes sense for AI to do and what makes sense for a human to do.” She cited a study indicating that skills such as organization, prioritization, and training still require strong human involvement. In her view, the most likely outcome is a division of labor, leading to the evolution of current roles and the creation of new ones. “In that evolution, continuous training for all employees is key,” she concluded.
