Marga Barrera
Global Head of Design at BBVA
Marga Barrera is the Global Head of Design at BBVA, leading strategy for product, brand, and service design across all the bank’s markets. With over 25 years of experience in digital transformation and human‑centred design, she joined the multinational Spanish banking group in 2016 to elevate design from an operational support function to a strategic driver of change. At the time, BBVA had fewer than ten design professionals; today, she oversees a global design community of more than 500 people operating under a federated methodology and shared toolset for consistent experiences across countries.
Under her leadership, BBVA received the Special Mention in Design at the Spanish National Innovation and Design Awards. She has steered major brand initiatives—including a digitally native corporate identity launched in 2019, and guided award‑winning redesigns of BBVA’s mobile and web apps that significantly boosted customer engagement and trust.
She is currently focused on integrating AI into the bank’s customer experience, ensuring that technology serves people in meaningful, ethical, and impactful ways. Her team is exploring voice interfaces, personification, and data‑driven personalisation, bringing together narrative and interaction design to shape the future of banking experiences. Marga holds an Executive MBA from IE Business School. Her vision positions design not just as visual polish, but as a strategic muscle—driving culture, innovation, and competitive differentiation in regulated, legacy‑heavy institutions.
Marga Barrera
Global Head of Design at BBVA
Marga Barrera is the Global Head of Design at BBVA, leading strategy for product, brand, and service design across all the bank’s markets. With over 25 years of experience in digital transformation and human‑centred design, she joined the multinational Spanish banking group in 2016 to elevate design from an operational support function to a strategic driver of change. At the time, BBVA had fewer than ten design professionals; today, she oversees a global design community of more than 500 people operating under a federated methodology and shared toolset for consistent experiences across countries.
Under her leadership, BBVA received the Special Mention in Design at the Spanish National Innovation and Design Awards. She has steered major brand initiatives—including a digitally native corporate identity launched in 2019, and guided award‑winning redesigns of BBVA’s mobile and web apps that significantly boosted customer engagement and trust.
She is currently focused on integrating AI into the bank’s customer experience, ensuring that technology serves people in meaningful, ethical, and impactful ways. Her team is exploring voice interfaces, personification, and data‑driven personalisation, bringing together narrative and interaction design to shape the future of banking experiences. Marga holds an Executive MBA from IE Business School. Her vision positions design not just as visual polish, but as a strategic muscle—driving culture, innovation, and competitive differentiation in regulated, legacy‑heavy institutions.
Sessions
From shaping AI products to redefining design itself: Inside BBVA’s AI transformation journey
As artificial intelligence reshapes the foundations of the financial industry, design is no longer just a partner. It’s a strategic driver. In this case study talk, Marga Barrera, Global Head of Design at BBVA, shares the journey of how a design team embedded within a global bank has taken on a central role in shaping AI strategy, ethics, and experience.
But this is not only about designing AI. It’s also about how AI is transforming the practice of design itself. From redefining the customer perspective through intelligent systems to co-leading the development of AI-native products and services, and from embedding trust in algorithmic decisions to rethinking the roles, skills, and mindset of designers, this session explores a dual transformation: how design is driving AI at BBVA, and how AI is reshaping design from within.
Building on nearly a decade of design maturity efforts at BBVA—including the creation of a unified, cross-market design community—Marga will reflect on what it takes for design teams to move beyond interfaces and into questions of technological direction, organisational ethics, and cultural change. With real examples from inside one of Europe’s most progressive digital banks, this session is for design leaders, strategists, and practitioners curious about designing not just with AI, but for a world being rewritten by it.
Technology & AI
Journeys & ecosystems