AI-generated summary
Jon Preciado, an alumnus of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation’s Akademia programme, exemplifies a transformative leader driven by relentless curiosity and a passion for questioning the status quo. His career centers on reimagining complex global processes, particularly in his role leading transformation projects at BBVA. Jon values diversity and collective collaboration, emphasizing that successful change requires understanding and integrating different perspectives across geographies and organizational levels. His international experience, notably in Peru, enhanced his adaptability and professional empathy, teaching him to tailor solutions to local contexts rather than imposing one-size-fits-all approaches.
Currently, Jon is focused on leveraging generative AI to automate operational tasks, boosting efficiency and customer experience while maintaining human oversight in critical decisions. He stresses that data quality and real-time availability are crucial for AI’s potential to be fully realized, highlighting the need for organizations to overhaul traditional infrastructures. Beyond technology, Jon champions soft skills—empathy, communication, and consensus-building—as vital to leading sustainable change. Personally, he practices purposeful productivity, balancing professional ambition with family priorities. Reflecting on his Akademia experience, Jon encourages young professionals to cultivate adaptable, broadly applicable skills and self-awareness to thrive amid rapid technological shifts. Ultimately, his philosophy of innovation centers on continuous questioning, human-centric collaboration, and purposeful transformation.
Curious by nature, Jon Preciado has made transformation his playground. At BBVA, he leads global projects that combine data, diversity of profiles and artificial intelligence to redesign operations management
At the Bankinter Innovation Foundation we like to closely follow the trajectory of those who have gone through the Akademia programme and today lead changes from key disciplines for the future. Jon Preciado is one of those profiles that do not fit into static molds. He defines himself as someone who cannot stop asking questions, and that has led him to promote real changes in complex processes on a global scale.
From “what if…?” to real change
Jon Preciado is defined by something that does not fit on a resume: his inability to stop asking questions. “Why not…? What if we try this…? What’s behind …?” That engine of doubt is what has guided his professional career.
“That curiosity has been like a compass,” he explains. It helped him find his place in the world of process transformation, where questioning things is not welcome; it is essential. “That constant questioning is what allows me to provide solutions, improvements or approaches that perhaps others would not have thought of.”
And that’s where Jon has found his element: in complex processes that need fresh thinking, critical analysis, and a desire to change things.
Diversity, context and collective construction
For more than six years, Jon has been leading global transformation projects at BBVA. His work has allowed him to collaborate with teams from different countries, areas and hierarchical levels. And from there has come one of his key learnings: the richness of diverse approaches.
“When you do workshops with people from different geographies and roles – people from operations, management, transformation – you realize that no one is the best at everything,” he says. For him, the key is to build collectively: “One proposes something, the other improves it, the next adds his vision… and thus a solution is generated that really works.”
But it is not only about listening, but also about thoroughly understanding the objectives of the other. “If you go with your vision alone, you won’t get far. Unless you’re the CEO and you can impose, of course. ???? But if you want change to be real and lasting, people have to feel like they’ve been part of the process.”
International experience: transforming also from the outside
Another turning point in Jon’s career was his professional experience in Peru. He spent two years working on transformation projects within BBVA’s ecosystem in Latin America, a stage that helped him to broaden his vision and understand how operating models vary depending on the country.
“It was very enriching to see how things are done in another environment. In Peru there were different dynamics, different challenges, other rhythms. And that forces you to get out of your bubble, to adapt, to observe a lot before proposing changes.”
What stands out most from that stage is the ability to adapt and the professional empathy she developed. He learned to modulate his way of communicating, to take nothing for granted and to value small advances as great achievements. “Not everything has to be done as it would be done in Spain. Sometimes you have to listen more, understand the local context better and then yes, build viable solutions with and for the people who are there.”
This international experience also gave him security and confidence to take on global projects. “When you come back, you bring another look, more open and more strategic. You know that the same solution does not work the same everywhere, and that makes you a better professional.”
Shared goals and collaborative design
In these transformation projects, Jon works with methodologies that combine operational analysis, strategic vision and workshops with multidisciplinary teams.
The objective: to define more efficient and sustainable operational management models over time. And for that, you have to understand very well “what each part has, what the best practices are, what each team needs…”.
In the workshops, people from all levels meet: from those who are in the day-to-day operations to those who make decisions from the management. “The most important thing is to understand the context of each one, their objectives. And from there build a common model,” he summarises. A model that everyone can assume as their own, to ensure its adoption and permanence.
Generative AI: The Great Operational Accelerator
Today, Jon’s focus is on integrating generative AI into operations. Why? Because many tasks are still manual, not because of strategic necessity, but because of structural inefficiencies in the processes. And that’s where AI can make a difference.
“Before, the models were more limited, they needed specific training and that made it difficult to scale them. Now, with generative AI, you can automate much more, faster and with more capacity to adapt to the context,” he explains.
The big advantage, he says, is that it allows you to automate tasks that were previously too complex or with too many subjective rules. “That not only improves internal efficiency, it also improves the customer experience – responses are faster, more accurate and more personalized.”
AI that complements, not replaces
BBVA has been using predictive machine learning models for years, for example, to anticipate cash needs or manage demand. But now AI is going a step further: it is beginning to enter into documentary interpretation or supported decision-making.
“We are automating processes such as understanding the regulations that a customer submits. Before, that had to be done by a person with expert criteria. Now AI helps us a lot,” says Jon.
Of course, with prudence. In critical tasks, the model he calls human in the loop is maintained: the AI performs a first evaluation, but there is a professional who validates. “This way we reduce time and resources, but without losing control or rigour”.
Without data, there is no transformation: the great hidden challenge
After years focused on extracting data to measure KPIs or identify improvements, the new challenge is much more ambitious: to have data in large quantities, well structured and available in real time. Without that, artificial intelligence – both generative and analytical – simply cannot unfold its full potential.
Jon sums it up like this:
“The models are already there. Technology is starting to be there. But without data, we will not be able to use it. And whoever does not succeed, is left out.”
Many large organizations were not designed with this in mind. “Traditional technology architectures were not prepared to feed live AI models,” he explains. Changing this involves a profound transformation in infrastructures, processes and mindsets.
In addition, many systems continue to generate data in batches – batches, processed at the end of the day. But the new models require operations connected in real time, with metadata, structure and traceability from the source. “That’s going to be a very powerful focus in the next few years,” Jon says.
The message is clear: AI may be the engine, but data is the fuel. And right now, many organizations are still far from having a full tank.
Soft skills: the other driver of transformation
Jon doesn’t believe in technology without humanity. In his experience, soft skills are equally or more important than technical skills. “You can be technically brilliant, but if you don’t know how to work with others, if you don’t know how to listen, empathize or adapt your language, you’re not going to be able to lead a real transformation.”
Change management is not just about processes or data. Also – and above all – in how you communicate, how you motivate, how you make people join in.
For Jon, understanding other people’s objectives, knowing how to listen actively, negotiating without imposing and building consensus is what makes the difference between a good project and a project that is actually implemented.
And there’s something else. Over the years, he has developed a special sensitivity to detect who has the makings of a leader. “When you’re in these collaborative processes, it’s easy to identify the true leaders: they’re not always the highest-ranking ones, but the ones who make it easier for others to shine.”
They are people who contribute without imposing themselves, who connect points of view, who advance the common work without the need to appear. “That, to me, is real leadership,” he concludes.
Purposeful Productivity: Plan to Prioritize
Beyond work, Jon also devotes energy to what really matters to him: his personal development and his family. And he does it with intention. “I’m lucky that my wife is more organized than me – and that’s saying a lot,” he jokes. Together they have a very clear routine: every last Sunday of the month they do family planning, set goals for well-being, development and quality time. Then, every Sunday of the week, they check how they are doing and adjust details.
“It may sound geeky, but if you don’t have a plan, life drags you down,” he says matter-of-factly. With two young children, getting organized isn’t optional, it’s a necessity. They have very defined routines at home and weekly goals that land on small actions, such as setting aside time to train or visiting a health center. “This way we take advantage of the little free time we have consciously, not in survival mode,” he explains.
Jon believes that having goals isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. “There’s one question I love when people ask it: What’s your goal in life? And most of them don’t know how to answer. But if you don’t know what you want, it’s hard to get to a place where you’re comfortable.”
He is clear about it. His personal goal is as ambitious as it is simple:
“To have the best family in the world. That involves working yourself and building something that we are all proud of.”
A statement that sums up his approach well: improve processes, yes; but first and foremost, to improve as a person.
Akademia: where he began to think backwards
Jon is part of the alumni network of the Akademia programme of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation. And what he learned there is still very much present in his way of understanding innovation.
He sums up the impact of the program in a phrase that he heard repeatedly from Fernando Alfaro – and that stuck with him: “If you want to be extraordinary, you have to think backwards.” That idea of looking at the world from another angle helped him to internalize what real disruption means.
“At Akademia they gave us super powerful examples of lateral thinking,” he recalls. Like the case of an entrepreneur who made a lot of money with Walmart by taking photos of parking lots to predict sales. “That kind of thing makes you change the prism. Where others see a problem, you can see an opportunity.”
Akademia was, for him, a training to change the way he looks, develop critical thinking and get out of the obvious. “That was the great learning I took away: to break schemes and look for different ways of seeing and understanding change.”
What would you say to a 24-year-old?
The last question of the interview puts Jon in the role of mentor. What training would you recommend to a 23- or 24-year-old who wants to prepare for the next five years?
Far from proposing a technical master’s degree or a specific career, its approach goes in another direction. “I would bet on non-regulated training, very oriented to skills that you can apply in any context: sales, communication, marketing, entrepreneurship…”
For him, it is not so much a matter of following a technological fad – even if AI and quantum computing are booming – but of investing in skills that do not expire. “If you don’t know how to sell, you can’t sell a product, or an idea, or yourself. And that is closely linked to communication,” he explains.
He also insists on something that he considers basic to lead in any environment: personal development and self-knowledge. “The world changes very quickly. Today it is artificial intelligence, tomorrow it will be something else. But if you know who you are, what moves you and what you can contribute, you will be able to adapt.”
And he adds a very powerful idea about leadership:
“It is very difficult for someone to follow you if you have clear shortcomings. They will follow you because you are a boss, but not voluntarily. To generate real change, you have to be seen as a developed person.”
His final recommendation is clear: train to be autonomous, useful and with the ability to add value without depending on others to validate you. An approach very much in line with how he understands innovation: from within, from oneself.
Closing: transform with questions, with people, with purpose
What defines Jon Preciado is not only his role at BBVA, nor the operating models he has designed. It is his way of looking at the world: with constant curiosity, with a focus on real value and with a deeply human vision of transformation.
Always ask yourself what can be done better. Listen before proposing. And build solutions that work for everyone. This is how change is led from within.
Thank you so much, Jon! And many successes!
If you want to know the testimonies of other Akademia alumni, you can see them here.
And if you want to know more about the Akademia program, we invite you to visit the Foundation’s website.
