The news: Santander is significantly expanding its use of AI by rolling out access to all 185,000 employees worldwide. One year after announcing its goal of becoming a data- and AI-first bank, Santander says AI generated €35 million ($40 million) in business value in Q1 2026 and is on track to exceed €200 million ($228.7 million) by year-end. This contributes to the broader goal of more than €1 billion ($1.14 billion) in value between 2026 and 2028, per a press release.

Zoom in: Santander's decision to expand AI across the organization was driven by early, measurable successes.

• Operational automation proved the business case: The bank deployed more than 280 AI-powered agents across credit, fraud, and operations, helping automate manual, high-volume processes and improve efficiency in core banking functions.
• Fraud and customer service saw major AI gains: In Brazil, AI reduced card fraud claims processing times by 95% and automated up to 90% of cases. In the UK, AI is expected to handle about 240,000 card-related customer calls annually through self-service—reducing wait times and allowing employees to focus on more-complex issues.
• AI created opportunities beyond cost savings: Through its payments subsidiary, Getnet, Santander has been using AI to improve cross-border payment for customers and merchants, supporting higher conversion rates, a better customer experience, and the development of new payment services.

Why it matters: Santander's announcement shows a major global bank moving beyond experimentation and proving AI can generate measurable business value at scale. In addition to focusing on pilot programs and employee productivity, Santander is applying AI across revenue-generating, customer-facing, and operational functions. 

Implications for banks: Santander's AI success highlights a shift from using the technology as a productivity tool to integrating AI as business infrastructure. The bank is using AI to assist employees as well as redesign how fraud claims are processed, customer inquiries are resolved, and payments experiences are delivered. Future competitive advantages may come from how effectively banks integrate AI into core business processes.

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