Artificial intelligence is starting to extend beyond answering inquiries and into purchasing, posing a new challenge for financial firms that drive Americans’ purchases.
Synchrony Financial (SYF) doesn’t want to be left behind.
The consumer-finance giant is prepared for a future where more buyers use personal AI assistants to find items, compare deals, and perhaps make transactions, according to a Sept. 25 BofA Securities research note seen by TheStreet.
BofA analyst Mihir Bhatia recently met with Synchrony Chief Financial Officer Brian Wenzel at investor meetings in Los Angeles and San Francisco. AI becomes a prominent topic in almost every discussion, the note said.
For Synchrony, the immediate focus isn’t letting an AI assistant take over a customer’s bank account. It’s about ensuring that the company’s credit products, incentives, and financing offers are presented when customers ask AI tools what to purchase.
That approach is not just a theory. In August, Synchrony launched an enterprise cooperation with OpenAI to incorporate financing, incentives, and loyalty into AI-native shopping and checkout experiences. The company said the partnership is part of a plan to prepare for agent-driven commerce.
Meanwhile, Synchrony’s core consumer-finance business is reasonably solid, despite affordability worries and increased gasoline costs.
BofA reiterated its Buy rating and $89 price target on Synchrony, which implies a 24.4% upside from the $71.55 price in its Sept. 25 research report.
Synchrony wants its financial products inside AI shopping
Synchrony’s immediate AI strategy centers on what management calls “discoverability.”
As consumers increasingly turn to AI tools while shopping, Synchrony wants its financing options, rewards programs, and promotional offers to appear within those experiences, BofA said.
Synchrony’s public-facing collaboration with OpenAI supports that larger strategy. In August, the company said it intends to deploy OpenAI software across the enterprise and is working to embed financing, rewards, and loyalty into AI-native commerce. Artificial intelligence can change everything from product discovery to payments and rewards.
The cooperation will also feature a Synchrony ChatGPT plugin meant to help users find discounts and specials and search promotional financing, deals, and other offers from participating Synchrony partners.
And it might become more essential if AI assistants progress from suggesting items to actually assisting people in making purchases.
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BofA said Synchrony is investing in the right areas to be involved in personal AI helpers and agentic commerce. The business is also teaming up with merchants to provide promotional terms, discounts, and preferred financing options via AI-enabled shopping experiences.
The goal is simple: When a customer asks an AI assistant to discover a product, Synchrony doesn’t want its financing offer to vanish from the purchase decision.
“Discoverability” is Synchrony’s near-term focus, according to BofA.
The company thinks customers may be especially hesitant to relinquish control over major, discretionary purchases.
Someone buying furniture, paying for dental work, or making another significant purchase may still want to browse products and choose exactly how to pay.
And Synchrony’s present business is exactly this type of purchasing. The corporation works in segments from home and car to health and wellness, lifestyle, and internet commerce. Its public filings indicate a company based on credit programs provided via retailers, merchants, manufacturers, and healthcare providers.
Payment choices add another layer of intricacy.
Even if the AI agent recommends some alternative payment option that provides a higher instant discount or cash-back incentive, a shopper may choose a specific rewards card. So automated buying is more sophisticated than just finding the cheapest price.
Synchrony is preparing for agentic commerce, but customer behavior will determine its speed.
AI is also being used inside the organization. Synchrony expects more chances to employ the technology in dispute resolution, merchant onboarding, underwriting, and fraud protection, BofA added.
Synchrony’s current underwriting system is already quite automated. The company’s annual filing says it normally evaluates applications with automated underwriting systems that look at information including credit bureau data, prior Synchrony performance, and partner information.
Synchrony also employs models and other technologies to identify and prevent fraud.
Major lender prepares for AI to reshape how Americans shop.NurPhoto / Getty Images
Synchrony says the U.S. consumer remains resilient
The AI discussion comes as Synchrony’s legacy business provides a glimpse into how American consumers are coping with ongoing affordability pressures.
BofA said Synchrony told investors U.S. consumers are generally stable, despite concerns about higher gasoline prices and interest rates.
Public company data backs up that picture. Purchase volume in the second quarter was $49.8 billion, up 8% year over year, while loan receivables rose 2% to $102.2 billion. Average active accounts were about flat at 68.3 million. The company also returned $950 million to shareholders during the quarter.
BofA’s follow-up meetings indicated the third-quarter purchase-volume increase was tracking about in line with the second-quarter 8% pace. That compared with a Street expectation of 6.8%, BofA said.
The image is not uniformly strong everywhere. Synchrony advised BofA that super-prime customers continued to have the greatest spending patterns. Prime customers had become better. Non-prime was still a little weaker, but it wasn’t seen as a major cause for concern.
Larger discretionary purchases were the only noteworthy weak area. BofA notably pointed to outdoor items, furnishings, dentistry services, and health and well-being.
Synchrony’s large retail network also exposes it to several of those expenditure areas. The bulk of its 2025 filing is interest and fees on loans, which lists its five largest programs as Amazon, Lowe’s, PayPal, Sam’s Club, and TJX. Those programs accounted for 54% of total interest and fees on loans in 2025.
Those relationships are still growing.
In April, Synchrony confirmed an expanded relationship with Lowe’s, becoming the issuer of MyLowe’s Pro Rewards American Express Card. The card can be used everywhere American Express is accepted, not just at Lowe’s, continuing Synchrony’s relationship with professional home-improvement customers.
Synchrony’s filings also show that it completed the acquisition of Lowe’s commercial co-branded credit card portfolio in April. The acquired portfolio contained approximately $700 million of outstanding loan receivables.
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Programs like these help explain why management expects loan growth to pick up.
BofA said Synchrony was on track to achieve its mid-single-digit loan growth guidance for 2026. The bank cited rebuilding consumer balances, the Walmart portfolio, and increased penetration at retail partners as possible drivers.
The company’s public financials already show loan receivables were $102.2 billion at the end of the second quarter. The buying volume for the first six months in 2026 was $92.8 billion.
The credit performance, though, might be the more relevant barometer for investors worried that rising costs of living are nudging borrowers toward trouble.
Synchrony has told BofA so far that it is not seeing any serious deterioration.
Synchrony isn’t seeing consumer credit stress yet
Synchrony informed investors that credit performance is robust, with no material evidence of stress, even in subprime loans, said BofA.
Higher fuel costs are a danger, especially for lower-income customers, but management said it had not seen troubling shifts in consumer behavior.
Subprime borrowers represent about 26% of Synchrony’s portfolio, down from its longer-term range of 28% to 30%. Synchrony anticipates that share to slowly normalize as lending grows, which might lift loss rates marginally.
Meanwhile, Wall Street sees another possible AI disruption: deposits.
Investors were pondering whether AI agents may one day automatically transfer consumers’ cash across banks to earn greater interest rates. Synchrony disagrees, saying the transition is far further off.
The company’s typical deposit account is roughly $50,000, and management feels clients may be reluctant to let autonomous AI agents administer such significant quantities, BofA said.
Deposits are key to Synchrony’s operations. At the conclusion of the second quarter, deposits accounted for 83% of the company’s financing, totaling $82.8 billion.
Synchrony also stated that even when the firm doesn’t have the best rate on comparison sites, users still choose it. This demonstrates that in addition to yield, brand, safety, and convenience might be important, too. Another hurdle to entirely autonomous deposit movement are regulatory obligations, particularly know-your-customer standards.
For now, Synchrony regards the AI-led deposit shift as a longer-term evolution.
That’s a whole other matter than shopping. AI will soon decide which products buyers see and which financing deals they receive. Already, Synchrony’s work with OpenAI is setting the company up for that shift, embedding financing, incentives, and loyalty within AI-native purchasing experiences.
The difference matters. Consumers may be ready to let AI help them buy well before they’re prepared to let it govern their finances.
The immediate potential for Synchrony isn’t having AI transfer customers’ money. AI is guiding their spending, ensuring Synchrony’s financing and incentives are there when they need them.
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