Synchrony Financial, the powerhouse behind store credit cards for retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Lowe’s, is teaming up with OpenAI to transform how people shop through artificial intelligence. In a bid to streamline the digital checkout process, the partnership aims to let consumers purchase products directly within ChatGPT using their store cards. While most current AI assistants simply suggest products and then redirect users to an external website to pay, this move seeks to keep the entire transaction inside the chat interface.
According to Synchrony’s chief strategy officer Maran Nalluswami, the goal is to ensure that when a customer decides to buy something via an AI agent, their preferred payment methods are already integrated and ready to go. This shift toward what industry insiders call agentic commerce represents a significant leap for consumer lending, moving financing and reward systems away from traditional web pages and directly into conversational interfaces. However, getting these private label cards embedded into the system will take several months as Synchrony works out the details with its various brand partners.
Despite the technological ambition, several hurdles remain before seamless AI shopping becomes common practice. Many consumers are still hesitant to trust AI agents with sensitive financial data or grant them the authority to finalize purchases independently. Beyond user trust, there are complex economic conversations regarding how transaction fees will be split between the retailers, OpenAI, and Synchrony. These negotiations will determine whether the model is sustainable for all parties involved.
Looking beyond OpenAI, Synchrony indicated it is exploring similar integrations with other major AI players including Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. As part of its immediate rollout, the company is introducing a ChatGPT plugin that allows users to explore promotional financing and marketplace deals more easily. For OpenAI, these partnerships arrive at a critical time as the company faces increasing pressure to evolve ChatGPT into a comprehensive commercial platform ahead of a potential public offering.