Synchrony has named Nimrod Barak as its first Chief AI Officer, effective June 30, 2026. Barak will lead the consumer financial services company's enterprise-wide AI strategy, governance, and execution, with a focus on embedding AI across customer, partner, and employee-facing operations.
Barak joins from Citi, where he served as Managing Director and Head of AI Center of Excellence and Emerging Technologies. He brings more than 20 years of experience building and scaling global engineering, data, and AI organizations.
What the new role covers
Barak will oversee the development and deployment of AI capabilities across Synchrony. That includes advancing agentic and intelligent automation initiatives and ensuring AI is embedded responsibly into products, operations, and decision-making.
Florin Arghirescu, EVP & Chief Technology Officer at Synchrony, said: "Over the past several years, Synchrony has been thoughtfully rolling out new AI capabilities across the organization and preparing for the next phase of agentic commerce. We look forward to Nimrod's leadership to accelerate AI adoption as part of our commitment to responsible innovation built on decades of trust with consumers and partners."
Synchrony has already been scaling AI adoption internally. Nearly 100% of its professional workforce uses AI tools including Synchrony GPT, which the company introduced in 2024. Employee trust is high: 90% say they trust the company to use AI fairly, ethically, and responsibly.
The appointment gives Synchrony a dedicated executive to coordinate AI strategy across business lines. For executives in financial services, the move is part of recruiting leaders with direct responsibility for AI governance and outcomes - an emerging pattern in the sector.
Finance leaders watching AI governance can find more structured coverage of how companies like Synchrony structure their executive ranks in AI for Executives & Strategy and AI for Finance.
Why this matters for executives and strategy leaders
Synchrony's board has not just added another AI role; it has created C-suite accountability for adoption, governance, and results. Executive teams waiting for AI market maturity may now be missing the signal this move sends: leadership is framing AI adoption as an operational discipline, not a headcount memo.
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