Como o CaixaBank impulsiona o futuro da banca com IA

A inteligência artificial está a acelerar a transformação dos serviços financeiros. Para o CaixaBank, a oportunidade vai além da adoção de novas tecnologias: implica repensar a forma como o banco opera, dotar os seus profissionais de novas capacidades e criar as bases para impulsionar o crescimento a longo prazo.

Nesta entrevista, Gonzalo Gortázar, CEO do CaixaBank, conversa com Pablo Campos sobre a forma como uma das principais instituições financeiras da Europa está a abordar esta transformação. Juntos, analisam o investimento do CaixaBank em tecnologia e inteligência artificial, o papel do seu programa Cosmos no redesenho de processos e na modernização da infraestrutura tecnológica, bem como as razões pelas quais a instituição considera a IA uma ferramenta fundamental para impulsionar a produtividade e o crescimento.

Gortázar explica também por que motivo a colaboração assume uma relevância especial à medida que o ritmo da mudança acelera e como a experiência no setor, a perspetiva global e a abordagem estratégica da Oliver Wyman estão a ajudar o CaixaBank a identificar as áreas em que deve concentrar os seus esforços no futuro.

Voice over

The financial world is changing at lightning speed, and technology is reshaping every interaction between banks and their customers. Against this backdrop of change, CaixaBank has positioned itself as Spain's leading retail bank, with more than 20 million customers and a record net profit of nearly 6 billion euros in 2025. Its reputation for innovation and strong performance has made it the sixth largest bank by capital in Europe, earning numerous international awards in recent years while also operating the largest branch network in Spain. And as digital vision meets banking tradition, CaixaBank’s bold investment in innovation and AI is redefining what's possible for the future of financial services. Join us as we explore the opportunities and challenges in this new era.

Pablo Campos: Hello everyone, I'm Pablo Campos, president of Oliver Wyman in Spain and Portugal, and I'm pleased to be joined today by Gonzalo Gortázar, the global CEO of CaixaBank, the leading bank in Spain and one of the leading institutions in Europe and a benchmark in digital banking, insurance and asset management.

Gonzalo Gortázar: Well, thank you very much, Pablo. It's my pleasure to be here.

Pablo: Gonzalo, the current financial landscape looks very different from what it was just a few years ago. In the report we presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, we found that AI for investing grew by more than 30% in just the last two years. Under this thriving and changing context, how do you see the financial services landscape evolving, and in particular, what are CaixaBank’s priorities going forward?

Gonzalo: Well, what you say is very true. We are going through a profound transformation in financial services. Technology, and now particularly AI, is accelerating this speed. In this context, we need to evolve and adapt what we are as a very successful franchise. So, agility and transformation are the keywords for what we need to do in this context.

Pablo: Technology and innovation are strategic pillars for CaixaBank. You've been acknowledged as an innovator. You pioneered contactless payments and the use of NFC technology in credit cards and mobile phones. As part of our CEO agenda, we conducted a survey of all the banking and capital markets CEOs, and 33% of the respondents found that they had achieved 10% cost savings, thanks to AI. In that context, how do you at CaixaBank balance established practices and businesses with the adoption of new technologies?

Gonzalo: Well, that balance in exercise is actually very important. When we look at established practices and new technologies, I think there's one common denominator. It's our people. Our people have been really leaning into practices that are actually very good, and they are the ones who also need to embrace technology. So, we want to have people at the front and center of these profound transformations. We need to give them the tools so that they really, actually embrace and deliver. In this context, I think there are obviously many use cases for AI, and we're deploying them across the organization. But rather than setting big cost-saving targets that may apply only to certain projects, it's better to think of AI as a productivity-enhancement tool that will lead to substantial growth.

Pablo: And as part of your current strategic plan, which is in force until December 2027, you included an initiative called Cosmos. Could you tell us a bit more about that program?

Gonzalo: Well, Cosmos is the incremental investment spend on IT, which we decided to move from 4 billion plus to 5 billion plus because this is a time where we're growing the business, and it was never more obvious to me that we need to invest in the long-term transformation of the business. So we're basically redesigning our processes. We're giving our business units the right technological tools that they may not have had after a sort of 10 or 15 years of difficult times in Spain post the great financial crisis. We're tackling our legacy issues and increasing resilience in a big way. And we're building a cognitive platform for AI, which is obviously intended to be the basis of our long-term future. We have circa 3000 people full-time equivalent currently working on this program. So it's a big thing for us.

Pablo: And while you're expanding AI into different businesses across the organization, you have started collaborating with other partners to scale innovation. How is that collaboration helping you turn AI from experimentation into measurable impact?

Gonzalo: Well, the scale of change is massive. We have been used to significant change for some time, but it has been very focused on digital channels and payments, with maybe some other parts of the business. Now you look at the business, and it's everywhere, and it's very fast. In this context, we need to prioritize. Obviously, we need to build organization agility, as I said before. But when we're looking at what to do first and what is the right order, being open to the outside world through advisors, consultants, our technological providers, fintechs and new businesses, this is obviously critical so that we can prioritize.

Pablo: And how has working with Oliver Wyman supported you and CaixaBank in thinking, designing, planning, or executing your key initiatives in AI?

Gonzalo: Well, we're very appreciative of Oliver Wyman's work for us, and you've done what you're doing and hopefully what you'll continue to do. Clearly, I think you bring to the table a combination of deep sector expertise, your global presence, your ability to see what's going on in different organizations, different parts of the world, and I would say your strategic thinking, the ability to connect the dots; these all together are very useful. And we're seeing the change is so fast that we really need to cope with it and make sure we place our bets in the right places. So thank you for your work, and look forward to more of it.

Pablo: Indeed. Thanks a lot for joining us today. It's been a pleasure exploring more about CaixaBank and its future. And thank you, everyone, for watching this video.

Gonzalo: Thank you, Pablo. It's been great to be here. Thank you.

This transcript was edited for clarity

A inteligência artificial está a acelerar a transformação dos serviços financeiros. Para o CaixaBank, a oportunidade vai além da adoção de novas tecnologias: implica repensar a forma como o banco opera, dotar os seus profissionais de novas capacidades e criar as bases para impulsionar o crescimento a longo prazo.

Nesta entrevista, Gonzalo Gortázar, CEO do CaixaBank, conversa com Pablo Campos sobre a forma como uma das principais instituições financeiras da Europa está a abordar esta transformação. Juntos, analisam o investimento do CaixaBank em tecnologia e inteligência artificial, o papel do seu programa Cosmos no redesenho de processos e na modernização da infraestrutura tecnológica, bem como as razões pelas quais a instituição considera a IA uma ferramenta fundamental para impulsionar a produtividade e o crescimento.

Gortázar explica também por que motivo a colaboração assume uma relevância especial à medida que o ritmo da mudança acelera e como a experiência no setor, a perspetiva global e a abordagem estratégica da Oliver Wyman estão a ajudar o CaixaBank a identificar as áreas em que deve concentrar os seus esforços no futuro.

Voice over

The financial world is changing at lightning speed, and technology is reshaping every interaction between banks and their customers. Against this backdrop of change, CaixaBank has positioned itself as Spain's leading retail bank, with more than 20 million customers and a record net profit of nearly 6 billion euros in 2025. Its reputation for innovation and strong performance has made it the sixth largest bank by capital in Europe, earning numerous international awards in recent years while also operating the largest branch network in Spain. And as digital vision meets banking tradition, CaixaBank’s bold investment in innovation and AI is redefining what's possible for the future of financial services. Join us as we explore the opportunities and challenges in this new era.

Pablo Campos: Hello everyone, I'm Pablo Campos, president of Oliver Wyman in Spain and Portugal, and I'm pleased to be joined today by Gonzalo Gortázar, the global CEO of CaixaBank, the leading bank in Spain and one of the leading institutions in Europe and a benchmark in digital banking, insurance and asset management.

Gonzalo Gortázar: Well, thank you very much, Pablo. It's my pleasure to be here.

Pablo: Gonzalo, the current financial landscape looks very different from what it was just a few years ago. In the report we presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, we found that AI for investing grew by more than 30% in just the last two years. Under this thriving and changing context, how do you see the financial services landscape evolving, and in particular, what are CaixaBank’s priorities going forward?

Gonzalo: Well, what you say is very true. We are going through a profound transformation in financial services. Technology, and now particularly AI, is accelerating this speed. In this context, we need to evolve and adapt what we are as a very successful franchise. So, agility and transformation are the keywords for what we need to do in this context.

Pablo: Technology and innovation are strategic pillars for CaixaBank. You've been acknowledged as an innovator. You pioneered contactless payments and the use of NFC technology in credit cards and mobile phones. As part of our CEO agenda, we conducted a survey of all the banking and capital markets CEOs, and 33% of the respondents found that they had achieved 10% cost savings, thanks to AI. In that context, how do you at CaixaBank balance established practices and businesses with the adoption of new technologies?

Gonzalo: Well, that balance in exercise is actually very important. When we look at established practices and new technologies, I think there's one common denominator. It's our people. Our people have been really leaning into practices that are actually very good, and they are the ones who also need to embrace technology. So, we want to have people at the front and center of these profound transformations. We need to give them the tools so that they really, actually embrace and deliver. In this context, I think there are obviously many use cases for AI, and we're deploying them across the organization. But rather than setting big cost-saving targets that may apply only to certain projects, it's better to think of AI as a productivity-enhancement tool that will lead to substantial growth.

Pablo: And as part of your current strategic plan, which is in force until December 2027, you included an initiative called Cosmos. Could you tell us a bit more about that program?

Gonzalo: Well, Cosmos is the incremental investment spend on IT, which we decided to move from 4 billion plus to 5 billion plus because this is a time where we're growing the business, and it was never more obvious to me that we need to invest in the long-term transformation of the business. So we're basically redesigning our processes. We're giving our business units the right technological tools that they may not have had after a sort of 10 or 15 years of difficult times in Spain post the great financial crisis. We're tackling our legacy issues and increasing resilience in a big way. And we're building a cognitive platform for AI, which is obviously intended to be the basis of our long-term future. We have circa 3000 people full-time equivalent currently working on this program. So it's a big thing for us.

Pablo: And while you're expanding AI into different businesses across the organization, you have started collaborating with other partners to scale innovation. How is that collaboration helping you turn AI from experimentation into measurable impact?

Gonzalo: Well, the scale of change is massive. We have been used to significant change for some time, but it has been very focused on digital channels and payments, with maybe some other parts of the business. Now you look at the business, and it's everywhere, and it's very fast. In this context, we need to prioritize. Obviously, we need to build organization agility, as I said before. But when we're looking at what to do first and what is the right order, being open to the outside world through advisors, consultants, our technological providers, fintechs and new businesses, this is obviously critical so that we can prioritize.

Pablo: And how has working with Oliver Wyman supported you and CaixaBank in thinking, designing, planning, or executing your key initiatives in AI?

Gonzalo: Well, we're very appreciative of Oliver Wyman's work for us, and you've done what you're doing and hopefully what you'll continue to do. Clearly, I think you bring to the table a combination of deep sector expertise, your global presence, your ability to see what's going on in different organizations, different parts of the world, and I would say your strategic thinking, the ability to connect the dots; these all together are very useful. And we're seeing the change is so fast that we really need to cope with it and make sure we place our bets in the right places. So thank you for your work, and look forward to more of it.

Pablo: Indeed. Thanks a lot for joining us today. It's been a pleasure exploring more about CaixaBank and its future. And thank you, everyone, for watching this video.

Gonzalo: Thank you, Pablo. It's been great to be here. Thank you.

This transcript was edited for clarity