BBVA has set up an 'AI Factory', housing over 150 data scientists, engineering and departmental heads to create a global hothouse for smart, data driven technology development.
Located at BBVA’s premises on the northern fringes of Madrid, very close to the bank’s central headquarters, the new structure will bring together a cross-disciplinary team of staff to develop AI-based services that can be re-used and rolled out in both the retail and corporate markets.
The new factory will work following the ‘agile‘ methodology, enabling the bank to shorten time-to-market for new products, while delivering a consistent user experience to all customers across the globe.
Ricardo Forcano, global head of engineering at BBVA, says: “The AI Factory will allow us to have the best tech and data teams working in an integrated manner, with the aim of developing algorithms that can be embedded into the bank processes to enrich our channels, products and services through personalisation, contextualisation and recommendation. And also to streamline and increase the efficiency of our internal processes.”
In a seperate move, the Spanish bank has launched a nine-month long Open Innovation Acceleration Program, aimed at giving fintechs a helping hand on the road to commercial deployment.
Aimed at ‘startups’ that have an early stage or seed profile, participants will be able to draw on the expertise the bank has to foster their growth - for example in areas like negotiation over a new deal, or cutting through red tape.
Those looking to take part are expected to be mature enough to have at least one minimal viable product in a go-to-market readiness stage, but who are now looking for help with speeding up their project’s success.