# Affirm: AI strategy Source: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/affirm/ai-strategy Last updated: Oct 22, 2026 *Part of the [Affirm AI strategy profile](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/affirm).* ## What is Affirm's AI strategy? Affirm builds its AI in-house and points it at three jobs: deciding each loan, choosing which financing offer to show, and writing its own software. Its fiscal 2026 10-K says its solutions use machine learning, artificial intelligence and cloud-based technologies and that Affirm prioritizes building its own technology. On offers, the FQ2'26 shareholder letter of February 5, 2026 says AdaptAI was deployed on nearly all Affirm surfaces and contributed to an approximately 10% year-over-year improvement in end-to-end checkout conversion, and that BoostAI, a newer model that runs automatic A/B tests of financing programs, showed merchants an average 5% to 15% increase in GMV. In engineering, Affirm paused delivery for a week in February 2026 and made Claude Code its default agentic coding tool; by April 2026 over 60% of pull requests were agent-assisted. CEO Max Levchin told analysts on May 7, 2026 that using AI this way is "unequivocally accretive to the bottom line", and CFO Rob O'Hare put the spend at "very low single-digit millions per quarter". Levchin said on the same call that Affirm is "not planning AI-related layoffs, full stop." Technology and data analytics expense rose $157.4 million, or 27%, in fiscal 2026. Affirm does not disclose a separate AI budget, AI headcount or revenue from AI products. ([Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059279/afrm-20260630.htm), [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026005772/affirmfq226shareholderle.htm), [Affirm Tech Blog](https://tech.affirm.com/how-affirm-retooled-its-engineering-organization-for-agentic-software-development-in-one-week-1fd35268fde6), [earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/05/08/affirm-afrm-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/), [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/affirms-levchin-does-not-plan-ai-layoffs)) ## What have Affirm's leaders said about AI, and when? Dated statements beyond those on the profile (the FQ3'26 letter's "truly AI-first" line, the CNBC interview and the Investor Forum). Quotes as published. | Statement or move | Who | When | Source | Sources | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AdaptAI and BoostAI, "a pair of our internally-developed yield optimization technologies", played "an outsized role" in the holiday quarter; AdaptAI contributed to an approximately 10% year-over-year improvement in end-to-end checkout conversion | Max Levchin, CEO | February 5, 2026 | FQ2'26 shareholder letter (Form 8-K) | [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026005772/affirmfq226shareholderle.htm) | | Discussing BoostAI as a pipeline for merchant revenue: "It looks more and more like an advertising model versus a cost of acceptance model"; "It's definitely early days for BoostAI" | Max Levchin | February 5, 2026 | FQ2'26 earnings call, reported by American Banker | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/affirm-details-new-ai-tool-for-merchants) | | "It's long overdue to get rid of bad software"; companies that make software without proprietary data or value-add will be replaced by AI coding | Max Levchin, on the Sourcery podcast | April 14, 2026 | Business Insider | [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/max-levchin-vibe-coding-replace-some-companies-bad-software-2026-4) | | Using AI in development is "unequivocally accretive to the bottom line"; "we think we can 10x this productivity further"; "we don't anticipate any sort of a decimation of the engineering team" | Max Levchin | May 7, 2026 | FQ3'26 earnings call transcript | [earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/05/08/affirm-afrm-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/) | | AI developer-tool costs are not material to the P&L, "very low single-digit millions per quarter in terms of spend" | Rob O'Hare, CFO | May 7, 2026 | FQ3'26 earnings call transcript | [earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/05/08/affirm-afrm-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/) | | "We are not planning AI-related layoffs, full stop"; AI tools are "giving us rocket boosters, wings, whatever metaphor you want" | Max Levchin | May 7, 2026 | FQ3'26 earnings call, reported by American Banker | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/affirms-levchin-does-not-plan-ai-layoffs) | | Technology and data analytics expense up $157.4 million, or 27%, partly from amortization of internally developed software; solutions use "machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud-based technologies" | Fiscal 2026 annual report | August 27, 2026 | Form 10-K | [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059279/afrm-20260630.htm) | ## Which AI products has Affirm built, and in what order? All built in-house except the coding agent. Results are Affirm's own measurements. | Product | What it does | Built on | Since | Sources | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AdaptAI | Selects the financing offer for each transaction to maximize conversion and minimize risk; deployed on nearly all Affirm surfaces, including digital wallets, by February 2026 | In-house yield optimization model | Opened to merchants April 30, 2025 | [Affirm (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250430451701/en/), [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026005772/affirmfq226shareholderle.htm) | | BoostAI | Runs automatic A/B-test programs at merchants, introducing new financing programs and merchant-funded incentives; merchants saw an average 5% to 15% GMV increase; no integration work required | In-house model | Disclosed February 5, 2026 | [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026005772/affirmfq226shareholderle.htm) | | BoostAI users | 47 enterprise customers and hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses | Same | February 5, 2026 | [American Banker](https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/affirm-details-new-ai-tool-for-merchants) | | Real-time bank-balance signals in underwriting | Uses account balances and cash-flow trends for Affirm Card users who link a bank account or hold an Affirm Money Account | In-house underwriting models | January 14, 2026 | [Affirm (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260114588934/en/Affirm-updates-underwriting-with-enhanced-signals-to-better-reflect-consumers-real-time-finances) | | Agentic coding workflow | One task, one agent session, one pull request; over 60% of pull requests agent-assisted by April 2026 | Claude Code (Anthropic) as default tool | February 2026 | [Affirm Tech Blog](https://tech.affirm.com/how-affirm-retooled-its-engineering-organization-for-agentic-software-development-in-one-week-1fd35268fde6) | | Generative AI customer-service chatbot | Disclosed as a use of generative AI in the risk factors | Vendor not named | Disclosed in the fiscal 2026 10-K | [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059279/afrm-20260630.htm) | | Transformer underwriting model | Reads the order and timing of events in a credit history; 3.4% more completed purchases than a control group in first deployment | In-house transformer model | September 17, 2026 | [Affirm (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260917918887/en/) | ## Who leads AI at Affirm, what does the 10-K say, and what is not disclosed? Levchin describes himself as "personally invested and involved in" software development. President Libor Michalek oversees engineering, risk, operations, product and design, and SVP of Product Vishal Kapoor fronts Affirm's agentic commerce announcements; no chief AI officer is named in the 10-K. ([earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/05/08/affirm-afrm-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/), [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059271/afrm-20260825.htm), [Affirm (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260303380950/en/), [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059279/afrm-20260630.htm)) The fiscal 2026 10-K says Affirm uses generative AI in "certain aspects of our business, including our customer service chatbot", and that generative AI may create inaccurate or misleading outputs or reflect unintended biases. Its stated controls include "human involvement in the training and monitoring of our AI tools" and aligning AI development with secure development guidelines. It names the EU AI Act among the laws its business is subject to. ([Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059279/afrm-20260630.htm)) Levchin told analysts that AI-written code still passes "unique-to-Affirm checks and balances" because "if we make an underwriting mistake, if our engine somehow treats some consumer unfairly or if we're off by a penny here and there, like none of that is okay." ([earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/05/08/affirm-afrm-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/)) What is not disclosed: a dollar AI budget beyond the CFO's range for developer tools, model providers other than Anthropic's Claude Code, revenue attributable to AdaptAI or BoostAI, and the share of customer contacts the chatbot resolves. ([earnings call transcript (The Motley Fool)](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/05/08/affirm-afrm-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/), [Affirm Tech Blog](https://tech.affirm.com/how-affirm-retooled-its-engineering-organization-for-agentic-software-development-in-one-week-1fd35268fde6), [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026005772/affirmfq226shareholderle.htm), [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059279/afrm-20260630.htm)) ## What does the Affirm profile record on this topic? | Date | Move | Detail | Sources | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Sep 18, 2026 | Levchin: no staff cuts to fund AI | On CNBC's Closing Bell Overtime, Levchin discussed the new AI underwriting system and said Affirm has not had to cut staff to implement AI. | [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/09/18/never-had-to-cut-staff-to-buy-more-ai-tokens-says-affirm-ceo-as-it-rolls-out-ai-underwriting.html) | | Sep 17, 2026 | Transformer underwriting model goes live | Affirm launched a transformer-based model that reads the order and timing of events in a credit history; in its first deployment it produced 3.4% more completed purchases than a control group, with a proprietary algorithm providing explainability at checkout speed. | [Affirm (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260917918887/en/) | | Aug 27, 2026 | Fiscal 2026 10-K and a second President | The 10-K reports $50.2 billion of GMV, 27.8 million active consumers and 2,358 employees, and discloses a generative-AI customer-service chatbot; the same day Michael Linford became a second President alongside Libor Michalek, who keeps engineering, risk and product. | [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059279/afrm-20260630.htm), [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026059271/afrm-20260825.htm) | | May 12, 2026 | Investor Forum: transformer models outperforming | At its 2026 Investor Forum, President Libor Michalek said Affirm had processed $150 billion of volume and tracked 2.3 billion repayments over 14 years, and that its newer transformer-based underwriting architecture was already outperforming previous model generations. | [PYMNTS](https://www.pymnts.com/buy-now-pay-later/2026/affirm-targets-card-networks-with-broader-payments-push/) | | May 7, 2026 | Shareholder letter: engineering 'truly AI-first' | Levchin's FQ3'26 letter said the retooling week made agentically written code dominate non-agentic 'essentially overnight', that an order-of-magnitude productivity gain is plausible, and that Affirm still expects to modestly grow its development team. | [Affirm Holdings via SEC EDGAR](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000162828026032105/affirmfq326shareholderle.htm) | | Apr 23, 2026 | Affirm details its AI Retooling Week | Affirm's engineering blog said that in February 2026 it paused normal delivery for a week and asked over 800 engineers to take real tasks through a fully agentic workflow, with Claude Code as the default tool; over 60% of pull requests are now agent-assisted. | [Affirm Tech Blog](https://tech.affirm.com/how-affirm-retooled-its-engineering-organization-for-agentic-software-development-in-one-week-1fd35268fde6) | | Aug 29, 2025 | Levchin cites a 5% merchant-volume lift from AdaptAI | After fiscal Q4 2025 results (revenue $876 million, up 33%), Levchin highlighted AI, noting early AdaptAI deployments had delivered an average 5% lift in merchant volume. | [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/29/affirm-stock-earnings.html) | | Apr 30, 2025 | AdaptAI opened to merchants | Affirm made AdaptAI, its AI-powered promotions platform, available to merchant partners for personalized, real-time promotions and credit offers at checkout, after it drove nearly 10% incremental improvements in conversion rates on the Affirm App and Affirm Card. | [Affirm (Business Wire)](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250430451701/en/) | ## Common questions ### Is Affirm cutting jobs because of AI? No, according to its CEO. Max Levchin told analysts on May 7, 2026 that Affirm is "not planning AI-related layoffs, full stop", and said Affirm does not anticipate "any sort of a decimation of the engineering team". His FQ3'26 letter said Affirm expects to modestly grow its development team. ### What are AdaptAI and BoostAI? Two in-house Affirm models that choose financing offers. AdaptAI picks the offer for each transaction and, per the FQ2'26 letter, contributed to an approximately 10% improvement in end-to-end checkout conversion. BoostAI runs automatic A/B tests of financing programs; merchants saw an average 5% to 15% increase in GMV. ### Which AI coding tool does Affirm use? Claude Code. Affirm's engineering blog says it chose Claude Code as its default agentic coding tool for its February 2026 retooling week, when more than 800 engineers moved real work to agents, and that over 60% of pull requests were agent-assisted by April 2026. ### How much does Affirm spend on AI? Affirm gives only a range. CFO Rob O'Hare said in May 2026 that AI developer-tool spend was "very low single-digit millions per quarter" and not material to the P&L. Total technology and data analytics expense rose $157.4 million, or 27%, in fiscal 2026, but AI is not broken out. ### What AI risks does Affirm disclose? Its fiscal 2026 10-K says its generative AI uses, including its customer-service chatbot, may produce inaccurate, incomplete or biased results that are hard to detect, which could harm its reputation or bring damages or fines. It also cites the EU AI Act among the laws that apply to it. ## Deeper on Affirm - [How does Affirm use AI across its payment ecosystem?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/affirm/payment-ecosystem-ai) - [What is Affirm's role in the digital payments transformation?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/affirm/digital-payments-transformation) - [How does Affirm use AI to make credit decisions?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/affirm/credit-decisioning-ai) - [What is Affirm doing in agentic commerce?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/affirm/agentic-commerce) ## Same question, other companies - [Nubank: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/nubank/ai-strategy) - [Revolut: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/revolut/ai-strategy) - [Chime: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/chime/ai-strategy) - [Klarna: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/klarna/ai-strategy) - [PayPal: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/paypal/ai-strategy) - [Block: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/block/ai-strategy) - [Stripe: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/stripe/ai-strategy) - [Adyen: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/adyen/ai-strategy) - [Wise: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/wise/ai-strategy) - [Visa: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/visa/ai-strategy) - [Mastercard: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/mastercard/ai-strategy) - [Ramp: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/ramp/ai-strategy) - [Brex: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/brex/ai-strategy) - [Plaid: ai strategy](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/plaid/ai-strategy) - [Ally: What is Ally Financial's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/ally/ai-strategy) - [Amex: What is American Express's AI strategy and technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/american-express/ai-strategy) - [Arvest: What is Arvest Bank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/arvest/ai-strategy) - [BofA: What is Bank of America's AI strategy and technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bank-of-america/ai-strategy) - [BankUnited: What is BankUnited's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bankunited/ai-strategy) - [Barclays US: What is Barclays US Consumer Bank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/barclays-us/ai-strategy) - [BMO: What is BMO's AI strategy, and how does it reach the U.S. bank?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bmo-us/ai-strategy) - [BNY: What is BNY's AI strategy and future technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bny-mellon/ai-strategy) - [BOK Financial: What is BOK Financial's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/bok-financial/ai-strategy) - [Schwab: What is Charles Schwab's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/charles-schwab/ai-strategy) - [Citi: What is Citigroup's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/citigroup/ai-strategy) - [Citizens: What is Citizens Financial Group's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/citizens/ai-strategy) - [City National: What is City National Bank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/city-national/ai-strategy) - [Commonwealth Bank: What is Commonwealth Bank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/commonwealth-bank/ai-strategy) - [Deutsche Bank: What is Deutsche Bank's AI strategy, and how does it reach the US bank?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/deutsche-bank-us/ai-strategy) - [Fifth Third: What is Fifth Third's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/fifth-third/ai-strategy) - [First Citizens: What is First Citizens' AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/first-citizens/ai-strategy) - [First Interstate: What is First Interstate's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/first-interstate/ai-strategy) - [First Merchants: What is First Merchants' AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/first-merchants/ai-strategy) - [Flagstar: What is Flagstar Bank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/flagstar/ai-strategy) - [FNB: What is FNB's AI strategy, and what has its CEO said about it?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/fnb/ai-strategy) - [FNBO: What is FNBO's AI strategy, and who drives it?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/fnbo/ai-strategy) - [Frost: What is Frost Bank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/frost/ai-strategy) - [Goldman: What is Goldman Sachs' AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/goldman-sachs/ai-strategy) - [Huntington: What is Huntington's AI strategy and who runs it?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/huntington/ai-strategy) - [JPMorgan: What is JPMorgan Chase's AI strategy and technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/jpmorgan-chase/ai-strategy) - [KeyBank: What is KeyBank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/keybank/ai-strategy) - [Morgan Stanley: What is Morgan Stanley's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/morgan-stanley/ai-strategy) - [MUFG: What is MUFG's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/mufg/ai-strategy) - [Northern Trust: What is Northern Trust's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/northern-trust/ai-strategy) - [OCBC: What is OCBC's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/ocbc/ai-strategy) - [Pinnacle: What is Pinnacle Financial Partners' AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/pinnacle/ai-strategy) - [PNC: What is PNC's AI strategy and technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/pnc/ai-strategy) - [Raymond James: What is Raymond James' AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/raymond-james/ai-strategy) - [Regions: What is Regions' AI strategy and technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/regions/ai-strategy) - [Sallie Mae: What is Sallie Mae's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/sallie-mae/ai-strategy) - [Santander: What is Santander's AI strategy in the United States?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/santander-us/ai-strategy) - [SoFi: What is SoFi's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/sofi/ai-strategy) - [SouthState: What is SouthState's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/southstate/ai-strategy) - [State Street: What is State Street's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/state-street/ai-strategy) - [TD: What is TD Bank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/td-bank-us/ai-strategy) - [TowneBank: What is TowneBank's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/townebank/ai-strategy) - [Truist: What is Truist's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/truist/ai-strategy) - [UBS: What is UBS's AI strategy, and how does it apply to UBS in the US?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/ubs-usa/ai-strategy) - [UMB: What is UMB's AI strategy, and what has it said about AI?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/umb/ai-strategy) - [U.S. Bank: What is U.S. Bancorp's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/us-bancorp/ai-strategy) - [USAA: What is USAA's AI strategy, and what have its leaders said about it?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/usaa/ai-strategy) - [Wells Fargo: What is Wells Fargo's AI strategy and technology vision?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/wells-fargo/ai-strategy) - [Western Alliance: What is Western Alliance's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/western-alliance/ai-strategy) - [Zions: What is Zions Bancorporation's AI strategy?](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/banks/zions/ai-strategy) --- Canonical page: https://www.bankingnewsai.com/fintech/affirm/ai-strategy Part of [BankingNewsAI](https://www.bankingnewsai.com/) — a free daily brief on AI in banking, an AI regulation tracker (43 authorities, 244 documents) and AI-strategy profiles of the 120 largest US banks. Markdown versions of every reference page: append `.md` to the page URL; index at https://www.bankingnewsai.com/llms.txt.