Synchrony Financial announced an enterprise collaboration with OpenAI on Monday aimed at embedding its financing products, rewards, and loyalty programs into AI-native shopping and checkout experiences inside ChatGPT. According to CNBC, the partnership focuses on making Synchrony's store cards — covering brands such as Amazon, Walmart, and Lowe's — available for use inside ChatGPT, so shoppers can check out without being redirected elsewhere. Maran Nalluswami, Synchrony's chief strategy and business development officer, said that getting general-purpose cards functioning within ChatGPT will take roughly six to 12 months, and that integrating private-label store cards — which work only at specific retailers — could take longer because it requires additional coordination with those brands.
"What happens today is the transaction doesn't cleanly happen yet at the provider like OpenAI," Maran Nalluswami said. "We want to ensure that if a transaction's going to happen in that ecosystem, our cards are loaded up in the right spots to ensure that that transaction finishes." Several obstacles remain before in-chat purchases become routine. Broad adoption also faces a trust gap, as many shoppers are reluctant to give AI platforms access to their payment details or to let automated agents finalize transactions for them, according to CNBC.
How revenue from in-chat purchases would be divided among Synchrony, OpenAI, and the underlying retailers is another unresolved issue, with Maran Nalluswami acknowledging that those economic terms have yet to be worked out. Synchrony also said it is in talks with Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini about embedding its cards in those platforms. The company is also rolling out a ChatGPT plugin as part of the arrangement, giving users a conversational way to explore discounts, partner promotions, and financing options available through Synchrony.
The plugin is available in the ChatGPT plugin directory, the company said. On the internal side, Synchrony plans to bring GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna into its workflows via ChatGPT Work, Codex, and AWS Bedrock to drive faster product development. The company said nearly all of its professional workforce has been using AI tools since 2024, and that 90% of employees expressed confidence in its approach to using AI.
"With decades of experience at the intersection of consumer financing, payments, loyalty, and merchant partnerships, Synchrony is uniquely positioned to help shape how AI-powered commerce evolves," Maran Nalluswami said in a statement. Synchrony stock was down 0.57%, trading at $80.54 on the NYSE on Monday.
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