Santander said Wednesday that its artificial intelligence initiatives produced 194 million euros ($216 million) in business value during the first nine months of 2026, putting a number on a payoff investors are pressing companies to prove this earnings season.
Novartis stopped short of a dollar figure. CEO Vas Narasimhan said AI has begun adding to the bottom line, pointing to productivity in marketing and sales while the drugmaker tests whether it can do the same for research and development. Novartis reported core operating income of $6.04 billion, up 10% at constant currencies, without saying how much came from AI.
I think this is the first quarter I've really seen AI start to improve actually our P&L on a tangible basis.
Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis
The demand for evidence follows heavy spending. Corporate AI investment reached $581.7 billion in 2025, a 130% jump from a year earlier, according to the Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index report. Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta are expected to spend a combined $700 billion on AI infrastructure this year.
What executives are saying
At Santander, Chief Financial Officer José García Cantera said the tools are cutting low-value tasks so staff can move to higher-value work, which affects both revenue and costs. Even so, he said the technology's exact share is hard to isolate.
AI is being embedded in all the processes that we are conducting at the bank, so it's really difficult to just say how much comes from AI, but clearly AI is improving the quality of our services to clients.
José García Cantera, CFO of Santander
Standard Chartered described a similar spread. CFO Manus Costello said AI is showing up across the business, helping managers build stronger customer relationships and letting the bank scale core processes efficiently, so income is rising much faster than costs. Third-quarter operating income grew 14% at constant currency, excluding notable items.
Carlsberg struck a more cautious note. CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said the company is not seeing benefits at scale, although AI has touched internal processes, cost efficiency, pricing, marketing and the supply chain. Revenue rose 4.9% in the quarter.
Big Tech's mixed evidence
Technology companies offered their own evidence. Meta said on Oct. 21 that its AI spending was delivering substantial added advertising revenue, as total revenue climbed 26% in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
Alphabet's picture was mixed. Google Search revenue growth slowed as concerns about AI competition lingered, while Google Cloud sales more than doubled in the third quarter to almost $31 billion.
