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What Synchrony means by AI-driven transformation
Synchrony is a consumer financing and banking company whose business includes serving customers and merchant partners. Its AI strategy is therefore tied to financing, rewards, loyalty and partner commerce—not simply to automating a general-purpose retail bank.
In its 2025 annual report letter, CEO Brian Doubles describes two simultaneous changes: agentic commerce, in which AI agents may help people discover and complete purchases, and “AI at work,” the use of generative AI, advanced models and agents across parts of Synchrony’s business. The first is about customer and merchant-facing commerce; the second is about how employees perform work and how the company serves customers and partners.
How AI is shaping shopping and financing
Marketplace and Joy Hunt
Synchrony says its Marketplace includes Joy Hunt, an AI search capability intended to help shoppers find products and offers. The company’s 2025 annual report letter also says it is building a Synchrony Agent within Marketplace. That is a reported development effort, not confirmation that a fully featured agent is generally available.
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Planned OpenAI collaboration
On August 17, 2026, Synchrony announced an enterprise collaboration with OpenAI. The company said it plans to deploy OpenAI models and tools across its enterprise and described a ChatGPT experience for consumers to discover offers from participating Synchrony partners. The announcement frames financing, rewards and loyalty as elements Synchrony aims to bring into AI-native shopping and checkout.
These are announced plans and intended capabilities; the announcement does not establish general availability or a completed rollout. Synchrony also says it aims to preserve merchant and consumer choice as commerce becomes more agent-driven, while cautioning that forward-looking outcomes are uncertain. OpenAI’s Kaylin Voss, VP of Americas and Industries, said in the announcement: “AI is creating an opportunity to reimagine the entire commerce experience – from how customers discover products to how they pay, earn rewards, and build loyalty,”
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Industry coordination is still work in progress
Synchrony’s 2025 annual report letter says it is working with Mastercard, Visa, Google, AI providers and major retailers on standards for agentic commerce. This describes participation in standards work, not a finished market-wide standard or proof that different agents and merchants already interoperate seamlessly.
AI inside Synchrony’s business
Synchrony describes its “AI at work” program as applying generative AI, advanced models and agents to customer and merchant experience, marketing, products, capabilities, coding and software development. The company says it is combining speed and innovation with governance and employee upskilling. Doubles wrote in the 2025 annual report letter: “That’s why we’re pairing innovation and speed with clear governance, and investing in upskilling so our teams can use these tools confidently and responsibly.” This is the company’s stated approach; the available company materials do not independently validate the effectiveness of its controls or training.
Synchrony’s reported workforce figures refer to different populations and reporting contexts, so they should not be read as a single trend line:
- 95% adoption: The 2025 annual report letter says adoption of generative AI tools among exempt employees had reached 95% as of early 2026.
- Nearly 100% usage: The August 2026 Chief AI Officer announcement says nearly 100% of Synchrony’s professional workforce had been using AI tools, including Synchrony GPT, since 2024.
- 90% trust: The same August 2026 announcement says 90% of employees trust Synchrony to use AI fairly, ethically and responsibly.
These are company-reported adoption and trust figures. The sources do not provide an independent audit or a detailed breakdown of how the figures were measured.
What the reported digital results show—and what they do not
Synchrony’s 2025 annual report letter says improvements across its website, native app and Marketplace contributed to an 18% increase in total visits and 17% more sales in 2025. The letter does not isolate AI’s contribution, so these are results associated with improvements across digital channels, not evidence that AI alone produced the growth.
The company also reported that unique digital-wallet accounts and digital-wallet sales more than doubled year over year. That is a company-reported comparison with the prior year; the letter does not attribute the increase solely to AI. Taken together, the figures show reported digital-channel momentum, but not a complete measure of AI’s effect on customer outcomes, operating efficiency or merchant results.
Who is responsible for the AI and digital agenda?
Synchrony’s leadership announcements assign responsibilities across digital, technology and enterprise AI. They identify the leaders’ stated remits but do not fully explain how overlapping decision rights work.
- Carol Juel, EVP and CEO of Synchrony’s Digital platform: Announced June 29, 2026, with responsibility for innovation, customer experience and consumer financing capabilities for digital-first partners.
- Florin Arghirescu, EVP and CTO: Announced June 29, 2026, with responsibility for enterprise technology strategy and execution, including the AI agenda.
- Nimrod Barak, Chief AI Officer: Announced in August 2026, responsible for enterprise AI strategy, governance and execution.
What Synchrony’s earlier AI work looked like
In an October 22, 2018 release, Synchrony described using AI and machine learning in credit underwriting and fraud prevention, alongside Sydney, an AI-enabled cardholder virtual assistant, and robotic process automation. The release said Sydney had reduced live-chat volume by more than 50% and that one treasury forecasting and operations process had a 50% reduction in cycle time. These are historical company-reported claims from 2018; they should not be taken as current performance figures or confirmation that Sydney remains available today.
How to assess the strategy
The two tracks call for different evidence. For AI at work, useful measures would include workforce reach and training, productivity, quality, customer and employee outcomes, and governance oversight. For agentic commerce, the practical questions are whether consumers can discover financing and offers, which merchants participate, how choice and security are protected, whether systems interoperate, and whether each feature is announced, in testing or available.
Synchrony’s materials provide company-reported adoption figures and digital business results, but not a complete independent scorecard across those measures. CEO Brian Doubles says, “At the core of these transformations is trust, and we work hard to earn it in everything we do.” That statement captures the company’s emphasis; the published materials cited here do not establish independent evidence of customer-level impact or the effectiveness of AI risk controls.
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