BBVA sponsors KDD, the premier international data science conference in Barcelona
The city of Barcelona is hosting the first edition of this event in Spain, which ran from August 25 to 29. Within the broad program of activities, BBVA sponsored its Finance Day, which focused on the applications of AI and machine learning within the financial industry.
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BBVA is taking part in the international conference KDD (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining), one of the most prestigious and widely recognized events on the international stage when it comes to data science and machine learning. The city of Barcelona hosted the first edition of this event in Spain (the third in Europe, following earlier editions in Paris and London), which this year ran from August 25 to 29.
More precisely, the bank sponsored its Finance Day, which took place on August 26, where experts in the fields of finance, fintech, AI and data mining discussed how these technologies can be applied for the benefit of financial customers. The issues they addressed included the use of AI in banking services and of machine learning in investment portfolios, the design of personalized product recommendation systems, and how these technologies can be used to make the financial business more sustainable.
The use of these data-driven technologies is one of the cornerstones of BBVA’s strategy of continuous transformation. Indeed, the bank has been relying on them for years in a bid to optimize its internal processes and offer its customers products and services that are increasingly tailored to their individual financial profile. Applications range from flexible financing products tailored to the turnover of small businesses, to supporting individual customers in managing their financial health, with the aid of digital tools that feature advanced analytics, machine learning and neural networks. Customers who use these tools in Spain save up to 11 percent more than those who do not, and their level of satisfaction with the bank’s services is almost 24 percent higher.
To succeed, the bank has upward of 5,500 employees who work to harness the value of data and artificial intelligence, as well as the AI Factory, its AI-based solutions factory, which operates out of Spain, Mexico and Türkiye and is widely considered by industry experts to be one of the finest financial innovation laboratories in the world.
“Taking part in events like KDD lets us keep in touch with those who are transforming advanced data analytics and developing artificial intelligence, while sharing our own progress,” explains Jon Ander Beracoechea, chief scientist at BBVA. “In this way, we can continue to explore cutting-edge technologies as soon as they become available, so that we can apply them for the benefit of our customers.”
The KDD conference is organized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). It has been uniting academics, researchers and practitioners since 1995 so that they can share and discuss the latest theoretical developments and practical applications of data-driven technologies. In its 2024 outing, the meeting has focused on topics such as generative AI, responsible AI and data applications in the environmental, health and finance industries.