Antonio Bravo on AI & Data at BBVA

In this episode, Avanish and Antonio discuss:

• BBVA's data transformation journey, including the strategic decision in 2017 to create a global data function at the executive committee level reporting to the CEO and Chairman
• Building hybrid data architecture combining centralized lake house (AWS) with data mesh approaches to balance agility and control across global operations in regulated environments
• The "eight robots" framework—a top-down AI transformation agenda targeting the most critical parts of BBVA's value chain, from digital client relationships to banker productivity to risk underwriting
• How BBVA defines data democratization as "responsible access" not "open access," implementing strict governance while enabling self-service analytics in a highly regulated industry
• Real-world AI impact: solutions reducing tasks from 11 minutes to less than 1 minute, generative assistant "Blue" serving 20+ million clients in Spain and Mexico, and IVR improvements saving minutes to seconds
• The partnership and ecosystem strategy leveraging enterprise-focused innovation through AWS, OpenAI, Google Gemini, and vertical solution providers to increase speed of learning and innovation
• Why the "mode in this cycle is learning—how fast you can learn, how fast you can test hypotheses"—embracing experimentation and continuous improvement as models rapidly evolve
• Antonio's vision for the future: using AI and data to expand bankarization globally, serving underserved populations and fueling economic growth for families and businesses

About the host:

Avanish Sahai is a Tidemark Fellow and served as a Board Member of Hubspot from 2018 to 2023; he currently serves on the boards of Birdie.ai, Flywl.com and Meta.com.br as well as a few non-profits and educational boards. Previously, Avanish served as the vice president, ISV and Apps partner ecosystem of Google from 2019 until 2021. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the global vice president, ISV and Technology alliances at ServiceNow.  From 2014 to 2015, he was the senior vice president and chief product officer at Demandbase.  Prior to Demandbase, Avanish built and led the Appexchange platform ecosystem team at Salesforce, and was an executive at Oracle and McKinsey & Company, as well as various early to mid-stage startups in Silicon Valley.

About Antonio Bravo, Global Head of Data at BBVA

Antonio started his career in 2009 as a consultant focused in Technology, Media and Telecom. There he had the opportunity to learn how (mobile) internet growth blurs barriers between different industries and makes them converge. One of those industries is finance. He joined BBVA in 2011 to be part of its transformation strategy, and since then he has had different jobs. Started working in the Strategy & M&A area, with focus on the BBVA Ventures team (today Propel) investing in fintech startups, continued with a role in Digital Banking Strategy team, and later in 2015 assumed the responsibility of Business Development in South America (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Perú, Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay).

He also held the responsibility of Agile Organization until July 2019, focused in scaling the Agile methodology through-out the entire organization, more than 33.000 people including holding and countries, to improve quality, time to market, productivity and team engagement.

From July 2019 until September 2021 he held the responsibility of IT Strategy & Control within BBVA, a function that manages some of the core IT functions at a global level, such as IT strategy, finance, vendor management, PMO, first line of defense and IT spin-offs.

Since September 2021 he holds the position of Head of Sustainability Strategy & Business Development, where he contributes to the design of the strategic plan for all segments and manages investment in descarbonization funds. In January 2024 he was also appointed as Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Strategy, Industrial client coverage and cross border business.

In January 2025 was appointed Global Head of Data at BBVA. Antonio is responsible of leading the transformation of the Group towards a data-driven company.

About BBVA:

BBVA is a global financial services group founded in 1857. The bank is present in more than 25 countries, has a strong leadership position in the Spanish market, is the largest financial institution in Mexico and it has leading franchises in South America and Turkey. In the United States, BBVA also has a significant investment, transactional, and capital markets banking business.

BBVA contributes with its activity to the progress and welfare of all its stakeholders: shareholders, clients, employees, providers and society in general. In this regard, BBVA supports families, entrepreneurs and companies in their plans, and helps them to take advantage of the opportunities provided by innovation and technology. Likewise, BBVA offers its customers a unique value proposition, leveraged on technology and data, helping them improve their financial health with personalized information on financial decision-making.

About Tidemark

Tidemark is a venture capital firm, foundation, and community built to serve category-leading technology companies as they scale.  Tidemark was founded in 2021 by David Yuan, who has been investing, advising, and building technology companies for over 20 years.  Learn more at www.tidemarkcap.com.

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