Vanessa Pombo Nartallo

Machine learning has no end of business applications. Consumers and citizens stand to benefit from this technology, which lets them manage their financial health, streamlines their digital processes, or makes their online experience smoother across multiple platforms, among other uses. A basic premise has emerged from this boom: there is nothing mysterious or magical about artificial intelligence (AI), and nor should it seem so. For more complex algorithms, data scientists develop tools to help us understand how they make their decisions.

BBVA conducted a study in Spain and Mexico that shows that customers who use its main financial health tools save 11 percent and 20 percent more, respectively. But how did the bank ensure that they eliminated the influence of other variables when calculating this savings? To do so, the bank used two machine learning models and causal inference, a statistical methodology that detects complex cause-effect relationships.

The bank offers its data scientists and engineers an extensive and continuous training ecosystem, both in-house and in partnershipwith top international universities and educational institutions,so that they may apply the latest advances in artificialintelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics in thedevelopment of cutting-edge financial products. In addition, italso offers training to other professional profiles so that they canuse data analytics to solve business challenges in their areas.In just 5 years, the BBVA Campus has trained more than50,000 employees, including 900 data scientists, through theData University.

BBVA has managed to get its app to learn to read customers’ bills, distinguish their energy costs and calculate their equivalent in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in order to offer personalized advice to save energy. Behind the carbon footprint calculator, which has been operational in Spain and will reach Turkey shortly, is an artificial intelligence system that is still being developed. In 2022, it will add transportation measurements to give an even more accurate picture of each user’s environmental impact.

Social networks are experiencing an outburst of influencers generating content on financial topics. More than previous generations, millennials (those born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s) and centennials (those born starting in the late 1990s) appreciate when this type of information comes from someone like themselves. But regulators that have started to monitor their activity recommend taking precautions before following their advice and warn of the risks of turning investing into “a videogame.”

The world is moving towards sustainable economic models which by 2030 could create economic opportunities worth $12 trillion a year. Through technologies such as advanced data analytics, blockchain or artificial intelligence, fintech can help companies to evaluate and reduce their environmental impact, and investors to channel their operations towards more sustainable assets.

eSports is one of the digital industries that has grown the most during the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021, more than nine million users watched around 2.3 billion hours of gameplay on the streaming platform Twitch alone, which in the first quarter of the year reached a historic 6.3 billion hours watched, doubling the viewing figures of the same quarter in 2020. It is estimated that by 2022 eSports will have global audiences of more than 600 million followers. Streamers are looking to offer these audiences unique new experiences that go beyond gaming and even leap from the virtual to the physical realm.

In the last six years, BBVA’s original team of less than ten designers has bloomed into a community of more than 500. This year the bank earned a special mention at the Spanish National Design Awards. In the meantime, design became a strategic driver of its transformation process, allowing customers to play a leading role by determining the design of its products. BBVA is facing the future trying to scale up its products by globally with efficiency, integrating data into design and exploring new user experience features, such as voice-enabled navigation.

Tesla and China’s restrictions to 'bitcoin' have brought to the foreground new ways to generate more energy-efficient cryptocurrencies.