Synchrony Financial, which issues credit cards for major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Lowe's, is collaborating with OpenAI to facilitate in-chat purchases through ChatGPT. This partnership represents one of the first significant efforts by a U.S. consumer lender to integrate payment solutions directly into an AI chatbot, a concept referred to as agentic commerce.
Currently, consumers who find products through AI typically have to navigate to a retailer's website to finalize their purchases.
Synchrony's chief strategy officer, Maran Nalluswami, highlighted the need for seamless transaction completion within the AI ecosystem, indicating that it may take six to twelve months to implement general-purpose cards in ChatGPT, with private label store cards requiring additional coordination.
Consumer hesitance regarding sharing credit card information with AI and the complexities of fee distribution for in-chat purchases remain challenges. Synchrony is also exploring partnerships with other AI platforms like Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini.
Additionally, Synchrony plans to launch a ChatGPT plugin to showcase marketplace deals and is utilizing OpenAI's latest models to enhance product development. This move comes as OpenAI gears up for a potential IPO, intensifying the need to expand ChatGPT's capabilities in online commerce