The real engine of innovation is trust

Every society in human history, regardless of geography, language, or economic system, has had to answer the same question: how do you build something with people whose commitment has to be earned?

The answer is trust. It is what makes two strangers decide to do business, compels an employee to give more than what is required, and draws a customer back when they have a reason to walk away. At a time when trust in institutions is at an all-time low, it remains the most valuable asset any institution can hold. Trust is also most fragile at the exact moment innovation is moving fastest, and when the pressure to be the first mover is at its peak.

We live and breathe this reality every minute of every day. One in four Americans has a Synchrony credit card – putting Synchrony at the center of real, everyday financial moments: a broken refrigerator, an unexpected medical bill, a purchase that can’t wait. Every one of those moments is a real decision, for both the customer and us. We either earn their trust, or we lose it and in financial services, there are no neutral outcomes.

The foundation of Synchrony’s business is trust. We trust consumers by responsibly extending credit so they can buy the things they want and need. We are trusted by our partners to help grow their businesses by underwriting consumers responsibly, without overextending them. And we are trusted as a means for millions of Americans to build their credit.

We’re excellent at managing credit risk and underwriting. Yet, we disrupted ourselves because we know credit is about more than a single transaction – it can be transformational.

It would have been easy to protect what we were good at but instead, we saw a system that could be improved to give more people access to credit. With that in mind, we built PRISM, our proprietary underwriting system that leverages alternative data to expand credit access for people traditional models leave behind. Through this work, Synchrony’s PRISM played a key role and we’ve approved more than 180 million accounts since January 2018.

If PRISM is about using better data to make smarter decisions, AI is enhancing those decisions at a scale and speed unimaginable a decade ago. That willingness to challenge what we were already good at is the same lens we bring to artificial intelligence. It’s reshaping how we work, how we serve customers, and how we compete.

Even so, technology alone doesn’t create value; it is ultimately people who identify opportunities to build trust. AI helps us scale those insights, act on them faster, and deliver better outcomes. It’s a partnership: people create the vision; technology helps bring it to life.

The model only works, though, when the people running it feel trusted enough to use it well. At Synchrony, 92% of employees say management trusts them without constant oversight. That trust fuels better ideas, faster action, and a culture of continuous improvement.

When employees feel trusted, they also feel accountable. It allows them to try something new. Innovation, including having the freedom, expectation, and permission to experiment with new tools – including AI – creates better outcomes for our partners and consumers. That’s the environment we work every day to create at Synchrony – never getting comfortable, always looking for ways to improve.

We demonstrate this in how we work—and where. We never mandated a return to office, instead offering in-person collaboration. At our Stamford headquarters, the majority of our employees are coming in because they recognize the value they unlock and the connections they build when in person. And our New York City Experience Center inspires hundreds of partners and employees, serving as a physical manifestation of what’s possible when you bring people, partners, and technology together. It’s not only an office for employees, but an expression of innovation.

While challengers will always exist, we all need to focus on what matters most: continuous improvement for our employees, partners, and consumers, centered around building trust. It’s how Synchrony has risen in the Great Place to Work rankings from #37 in 2021 to the top three. This is how we create value not only for our shareholders but for society.

In the end, innovation is about maintaining the conditions that make trust possible. And the companies that get it right, consistently, are the ones that will endure.

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com