BBVA CEO Onur Genç took to the stage in London, at a CEOs conference organized by Bank of America, and let slip the line that is already going viral: artificial intelligence is going to make a difference between banks similar to the one that digitalization made a few years ago. According to him, his institution spends €4.5 billion every year—more than US$5.1 billion—on technology, and plans to keep that pace with AI. Sounds impressive. But for the Venezuelan who every day swaps USDT for bolívares, the question isn’t how much BBVA spends—it’s when that technology is felt in their pocket.
📊 What Genç said, in short
The Turkish executive spoke about three specific things. First, about money: an annual figure for technology investment that, in relative terms, says that it surpasses that of its competitors. Second, about people: 127,000 employees who, he says, can become more productive with AI, even those who serve the public. And third, about customers: 81 million users who open the same application in Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Spain, even though they have completely different needs.
Here’s the most juicy point. Genç wonders why everyone sees the same interface and not one adapted to what each person wants to do. His bet is conversational banking: instead of navigating menus, you talk to the bank the way you’d talk to a person.
📈 The Venezuelan gap: lots of talk, few megabytes
Let’s land the plane. In Venezuela, digital banking has advanced—mobile payments, biopayments, apps that work only halfway—but comparing that investment with the billions burned by a group like BBVA is like comparing a speedboat engine with a transatlantic liner. Local banking is still fighting system outages, mobile payment limits that fall short, and hours that don’t understand urgency.
And the context doesn’t help. Deposits in foreign currency by Venezuela’s financial system fell for the second consecutive month, to around US$2,588 million, according to industry reports. Fewer foreign currencies captured means less room to invest in cutting-edge technology. While BBVA discusses smart assistants, here the discussion is about how not to lose customers.
🔎 Conversational banking vs. the P2P guy’s chat
There’s a beautiful irony in all of this. In Venezuela, “conversational banking” already exists, but no bank invented it: it’s called WhatsApp. The user writes the guy who sells USDT, agrees on the rate, sets the payment method, and within minutes has the bolívares in their account or in their digital wallet. No lines, no branches, no menus.
What Genç proposes is to formalize that experience within the bank. If BBVA Provincial— the Venezuelan subsidiary of the group—managed to create an assistant capable of quoting prices, answering questions, and speeding up transactions, then the P2P wouldn’t lose: it would gain an alternative. Competition is good for the buyer and for the seller.
💰 USDT isn’t going anywhere because of a chatbot
Watch the enthusiasm. The appeal of USDT in Venezuela has never been the convenience of the interface. It’s the coverage: inflation, exchange controls, the gap between the BCV’s official rate and the real market price. AI can improve the user experience, but it doesn’t solve the underlying reason. People want digital dollars, not bolívares with a prettier app.
As long as there’s an exchange-rate gap and the official rate doesn’t reflect what’s happening on the street, P2P will remain the real thermometer for the dollar in Venezuela. No language model changes that overnight.
🛡️ What PitbullChain monitors
With all that said, there are signals that would be worth keeping an eye on:
• If banking speeds up its digitalization, it could raise mobile payment limits and offer its own wallets, which would put pressure on P2P margins and perhaps improve the price for the end user.
• If open APIs appear, along with integrations with exchanges and clear compliance rules, the bridge between formal banking and crypto would stop being a leap into the void.
• If everything stays in conferences and promises, the effect will be a showroom display: nice for the photo, invisible for your pocket.
Our always-necessary recommendation: don’t marry one platform; compare rates before closing any transaction, review commissions, and be wary of offers that are too good to be true. Technology helps, but the user’s judgment remains the best antivirus.
📖 Read the full article: https://pitbullchain.com/noticias/bbva-mete-4-500-millones-en-ia-le-cambia-algo-al-p2p-venezolano-426458
https://public.bnbstatic.com/image/pgc/20260924/44cfea9012994e69a6a9cd6475c9011d.jpg
📊 Live rates and analysis at https://pitbullchain.com
$USDT #BBVA #inteligenciaartificial #bancadigitalVenezuela #USDT #P2P