Banco Santander has done what most big companies have not: put a hard number on what artificial intelligence is actually worth to it. The Spanish banking giant says AI initiatives generated €194 million — about $216 million — in business value during the first nine months of 2026, a figure disclosed alongside its third-quarter results on October 28 and discussed with CNBC in the days that followed.
The disclosure stands out in an earnings season dominated by enormous AI spending and vague promises of returns. Santander is, so far, the only large company this season to attach a specific figure to the technology's contribution.
A rare quantified claim in earnings season
Chief financial officer José García Cantera told CNBC that AI is helping the bank cut low-value, repetitive work so employees can focus on tasks that create more value. He was candid about its limits: because AI is now embedded in all of the bank's processes, he said, it is genuinely difficult to isolate exactly how much of any result comes from AI alone.
According to Santander's nine-month earnings presentation, the €194 million combines additional revenue, cost savings and reduced loan-loss provisions. The bank does not break the figure down, and it does not say what its AI investments cost — so the number is a business-value estimate, not a net-profit figure. For scale, Santander reported underlying profit of €11.176 billion for the nine months, up 16 percent. Against that total, €194 million is modest — but it is growing fast, from €35 million in the first quarter alone to €194 million by the end of September.
Santander said in June that it was on track to exceed €200 million in AI business value for the full year, and it has set a cumulative target of more than €1 billion between 2026 and 2028. Its full-year results will show whether the pace holds.
Where the value is showing up
In Brazil, Santander says AI has cut the time needed to process card fraud claims by 95 percent, with automation handling up to 90 percent of those claims at an error rate below 1 percent. AI tools are now in the hands of all of the bank's 185,000 employees.
Santander is not alone in reporting that AI has started to move the numbers. Novartis chief executive Vas Narasimhan told CNBC that the third quarter was the first in which he had really seen AI improve the drugmaker's profit and loss on a tangible basis, although Novartis did not put a figure on it. Standard Chartered reported third-quarter operating income growth of 14 percent at constant currency and said AI tools are helping improve customer relationships and streamline processes. Carlsberg has also cited AI-linked operating gains.
Why the number matters — and its limits
The timing matters because investors are asking harder questions about AI payback. According to Stanford University's 2026 AI Index report, corporate investment in AI reached $581.7 billion in 2025, up 130 percent on the previous year. With spending at that scale, markets want evidence that the money is producing returns — and most companies reviewed this season gave no figure at all.
Santander's figure is imperfect: self-reported, unverifiable from outside the bank, and carrying no cost side. But in a season of unquantified claims, it is at least an answer — and a testable one. If the bank clears its €200 million full-year goal, it will have something few peers can yet show: a running tally of what AI actually earns.
