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Santander advances AI-driven banking through OpenAI partnership
Santander advances AI-driven banking through OpenAI partnership

Yahoo

time3 days ago

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Santander advances AI-driven banking through OpenAI partnership

Banco Santander is advancing its commitment to a data and AI-centric approach through collaboration with OpenAI, aiming to establish itself as an "AI-native" bank. This initiative is part to the bank's vision of modernising operations and leading the transition towards a more personalised, and agile banking experience. By integrating AI with its existing "digital bank with branches" model, Santander seeks to differentiate itself in the competitive banking landscape. Historically, Santander has employed AI in areas such as fraud detection and customer service, which now serve as the foundation for its new strategy. The bank plans to scale generative and agentic AI not just to optimise existing processes but to redefine the banking experience entirely. This strategy is built on three key pillars, including embedding AI across all business functions, placing AI at the heart of global platforms, and leveraging an AI ecosystem for growth through partnerships with OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, and a startup community. The results are already evident, with AI projects generating more than €200m in savings in 2024 alone, the lender said. AI copilots assist in more than 40% of contact centre interactions, while Speech Analytics processes around ten million voice calls annually in Spain. In just two months, Santander implemented ChatGPT Enterprise for nearly 15,000 employees across Europe and the Americas, with plans to expand this to 30,000 users by year-end, encompassing about 15% of its workforce. AI tools are designed to assist developers, marketers, bankers, and service agents in tackling complex tasks more efficiently. Initial applications include investment copilots offering real-time strategy suggestions and hyper-personalised customer journeys. Santander's architecture is modular and vendor-neutral, allowing seamless integration with OpenAI and other large language models. More than 6,000 developers are currently utilising AI tools, resulting in productivity increases of 20–30% for certain tasks. To democratise AI usage, Santander is implementing tailored training programmes across various roles, including learning capsules, workshops, and hands-on hackathons. Banco Santander chief data and AI officer Ricardo Martín Manjon said: 'In today's fast-moving financial landscape, competitive edge comes not just from adopting artificial intelligence, but from embedding it into the DNA of how we work. 'At Santander, this belief drives our strategy. As chief data & AI officer, I'm proud to share how we're reshaping banking through a 'data & AI-first' transformation, now supported by a new collaboration with OpenAI.' Looking ahead, Santander plans to introduce a mandatory AI training programme for all employees starting in 2026, focusing on "Responsible AI" to ensure ethical practices throughout the organisation. The roadmap for 2026–27 includes expanding agentic AI, transforming both front- and back-office operations, and enabling fully conversational banking. AI copilots are expected to evolve into decision-making partners, while virtual assistants will handle transactions for customers. "Santander advances AI-driven banking through OpenAI partnership" was originally created and published by Retail Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Meta's Q2 Earnings: Key Areas Investors Must Pay Attention To
Meta's Q2 Earnings: Key Areas Investors Must Pay Attention To

Globe and Mail

time30-07-2025

  • Business
  • Globe and Mail

Meta's Q2 Earnings: Key Areas Investors Must Pay Attention To

Magnificent Seven stock Meta Platforms' (NASDAQ: META) Q2 earnings report is quickly approaching, and, as always, it is a highly anticipated event. That sentiment may ring true now more than ever, as Meta has made aggressive moves over the last several months to alter its AI strategy. Notably, Meta shares are getting upgraded significantly by Wall Street analysts coming into the release. As of the July 24 close, the MarketBeat consensus price target on Meta is around $752, implying only around 5% upside. However, among Wall Street updates released in July, the average price target is nearly $782. This implies over 9% upside and raises the stakes for Meta in Q2. Below, we'll detail some of the top items investors should pay attention to in Meta's Q2 results, which the company will release on July 30. Continued Advertising Strength Is Vital The company's core business remains the most critical focus for Meta: advertising. Thus, investors will surely want to see strength in this part of the business to drive sales and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) that meet or exceed analyst expectations. Meta trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 28x, just below its high over the past three years of 29x. It may take fairly substantial beats for shares to ride higher. Other underlying metrics will help gauge Meta's advertising business's health. One is growth in ad impressions delivered, which shows how many more ads Meta users saw. This growth rate ticked down from 10% in Q2 2024 to 5% in Q1 2025. It would be nice to see Meta hold the line at 5% growth due to this recent decline. This would indicate that user engagement gains are not trailing off, which is key for increasing the value of Meta's ad surfaces. Investors will want to see Meta's price paid per ad growth stay in the 10% range, plus or minus a couple of percentage points. This will indicate that competition among advertisers continues to increase, thus raising the prices paid to Meta. It would also show that Meta's returns from its AI investments in advertising are not diminishing. Given that these metrics have been significant drivers of Meta's rally, continued strength is important to the rally's continuation. Addressing Key Pain Points: Tariffs & Reality Labs It will also be important to see what kind of tariff-related impacts Meta sees on its advertising business going forward. In Q1, the impacts were relatively subdued. However, Trump's tariff policy is slowly becoming more concrete, with reciprocal tariffs set to take effect on Aug. 1. The 145% reciprocal tariffs on China only lasted for around a month, but they could have resulted in a temporary negative impact on Meta's business in Q2. Details on that impact could provide insight into how tariff-resistant Meta's business really is. Seeing some kind of progress in Meta's Reality Labs segment will also be important. Last quarter, sales fell 6%. Meta wants to sell millions more of its smart glasses in 2025 than it did in 2024. Seeing Reality Labs return to growth this quarter will be key to the firm actually achieving this. AI in Focus as Meta Undergoes Spending Spree Lastly, analysts will likely focus a lot of their attention on Meta's AI strategy, which the company is augmenting through the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). The company is doling out massive salaries to hire the best people in AI at MSL. Alexandr Wang, whom Meta essentially spent $14.3 billion on to join the firm, is the clearest example of this. Understanding Meta's AI vision, with Wang leading the charge, is key to the outlook on the firm. Investors should look for Meta to strike a strong balance between near- to mid-term AI monetization and long-term AI leadership. The company wants to make money with AI today, with opportunities like advertising automation and WhatsApp business messaging at the forefront. However, it also needs to stay competitive in developing general artificial intelligence in the long term. Commentary on how the company is shifting its approach, including the possibility of moving away from open-source AI models, will be key to watch. Overall, the points detailed above provide a largely comprehensive view of what to watch for regarding Meta in Q2. We'll circle back after the results to understand how well Meta on these fronts and cover other key details the company focused on in its earnings call. Where Should You Invest $1,000 Right Now? Before you make your next trade, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. Our team has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and none of the big name stocks were on the list. They believe these five stocks are the five best companies for investors to buy now...

Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s 'Got Game,' Says Jim Cramer
Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s 'Got Game,' Says Jim Cramer

Yahoo

time21-07-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s 'Got Game,' Says Jim Cramer

We recently published . Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed. Cramer has consistently discussed Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) over the past few weeks. These days, the firm's troubles with the US government are on the CNBC TV host's mind. Cramer believes that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) needs to spend its $500 billion investment commitment in the US in order to curry favor with the Trump administration. This time, he commented on how Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is making a name for itself in the content production business: [AAPL]'By the way, Apple came up in their conversation. Now I'm quoting our own people, but, that Apple's got game. And that's true. But Apple lives and dies by the cellphone. A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers. Previously, Cramer commented on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s AI strategy: 'This is one of the reasons why I'm so concerned about Apple. Here's a company with absolutely no AI strategy that I can see that does buying back stock endlessly, which, by the way, has accomplished nothing. Take it from me… And it started down the path of the old IBM where if it wasn't invented there, it wasn't good enough. We know where that strategy only… [brought] IBM, and it took many years to recover from it. Apple can change course by spending big money to acquire Perplexity, which I regard as a just-the-facts-ma'am engine, no bias that I can find. Right now, at this very moment… where there's no clear winner, and each offering seems to be fighting for second place, Apple can step in to become the number one AI chat company immediately… While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the . READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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