Ugi at 10 Years Old Reflects Garanti BBVA’s Long-Term Investment in AI-Driven Customer Banking Services

Ugi at 10 Years Old Reflects Garanti BBVA’s Long-Term Investment in AI-Driven Customer Banking Services

(IN BRIEF) Garanti BBVA is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its AI-powered smart assistant Ugi, which has evolved from a simple chatbot launched in 2016 into a sophisticated generative AI banking platform serving 1.6 million active users. Ugi now manages more than 6.4 million monthly interactions and supports over 300 banking transactions through conversational text and voice interfaces. The assistant’s transition to a large language model-based infrastructure has significantly improved its ability to understand customer requests and deliver personalized solutions. Garanti BBVA says nearly half of its mobile banking customers used Ugi over the past year, while the system also generated hundreds of thousands of proactive notifications monthly. The bank plans to continue expanding Ugi’s capabilities with more advanced AI-driven personalization and decision-support features aimed at transforming digital banking experiences.

(PRESS RELEASE) ISTANBUL, 8-May-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — Garanti BBVA is marking the 10th anniversary of its AI-powered smart assistant Ugi, highlighting how the platform has evolved from an early chatbot launched in 2016 into a sophisticated digital banking companion powered by generative artificial intelligence. Initially introduced within the bank’s mobile application at a time when conversational AI was still emerging in the financial sector, Ugi has grown into a large-scale AI ecosystem capable of supporting more than 300 end-to-end banking services and handling an average of 6.4 million customer interactions each month. Today, the assistant serves approximately 1.6 million active users and has become a central component of the bank’s digital banking strategy.

Over the past decade, Ugi has undergone a significant technological transformation. The system originally relied on predefined, rules-based responses, but Garanti BBVA later transitioned the assistant to a large language model-based infrastructure capable of understanding context, interpreting natural language, and generating more personalized responses. According to the bank, this transition required nearly two years of development and integration work. The updated architecture now allows Ugi to understand around 90 percent of customer requests while supporting conversational interactions through both text and voice interfaces inside the mobile banking app.

Customers can use Ugi to complete a wide variety of banking tasks using natural language commands, including reviewing credit card transactions, increasing card limits temporarily, checking debts, updating SIM card information, and resolving operational issues such as ATM cash retention incidents. In certain cases, the assistant can automatically launch and monitor service resolution processes without requiring users to contact a branch or call center directly. The bank noted that without Ugi, many of these interactions would still depend heavily on human-assisted support channels.

Ceren Acer Kezik stated that the bank’s objective is to create a highly personalized banking experience where customers feel understood and supported throughout their financial journey. She described Ugi as a digital companion capable of anticipating customer needs and providing seamless assistance during daily banking activities.

Garanti BBVA also revealed that customer engagement with Ugi has increased substantially over the past year. Nearly half of the bank’s mobile banking customers interacted with the assistant at least once during the period, while the system generated approximately 780,000 proactive instant notifications every month to guide users and provide relevant financial solutions.

Looking ahead, the bank plans to expand Ugi’s capabilities further through deeper generative AI integration, enhanced personalization, broader product support, and omnichannel functionality extending beyond mobile banking. Garanti BBVA expects the assistant to evolve from primarily handling information requests into a more advanced digital advisor capable of actively helping customers make financial decisions and manage their banking needs more efficiently.

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SOURCE: BBVA