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American Express Is Opening Its Network to AI Agents. Rogue Ones Do Not Count.

"AI gives us the opportunity to make Amex membership even more valuable."

By Sachin Mohan3 min read
American Express Is Opening Its Network to AI Agents. Rogue Ones Do Not Count.
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Organisation
American Express
System
Agentic Commerce Experiences
Stage
Live
Function
payments and service
Scale
$20.1 billion Q3 revenue
5areas of application
In 30 secondsKey takeaways
  1. 01American Express is integrating AI into its services, focusing on areas such as value propositions, customer acquisition, engagement, payments, and service.
  2. 02The company has released the Agentic Commerce Experiences developer kit (ACE) to facilitate transactions by AI agents, while also developing Intent Intelligence to confirm customer purchase intent.
  3. 03Amex is cautious about allowing AI agents access to its systems, implementing a risk-based approach to ensure security and service quality.
Show all 5Show less
  1. 04The company is enhancing customer engagement by integrating its membership features into platforms like ChatGPT and developing AI tools for business cardmembers.
  2. 05In Q3 2026, American Express reported a revenue of $20.1 billion, a 9% increase year-over-year, and raised its full-year revenue growth guidance to 10%.

“Agentic transaction volumes are still small, but the direction is clear,” American Express CEO Steve Squeri said on the company’s Q3 2026 earnings call on October 23, 2026.

Squeri said AI is reshaping how people find, weigh, and pay for things, but that agents acting for customers "does not change who the customer is."

He said "AI gives us the opportunity to make Amex membership even more valuable," and outlined five areas where the company is applying it: value propositions, customer acquisition, engagement, payments, and service.

The Payments Infrastructure for Agents

Amex published its Agentic Commerce Experiences developer kit, known as ACE, in Q2. The kit sets out the capabilities Amex is building for transactions carried out by agents, and Squeri said the company is "working with several leading AI companies" on integrating it into their platforms. He did not name the companies.

Earlier in October, Amex released Intent Intelligence, a framework that sets a standard for confirming and preserving a customer's purchase intent when an AI agent transacts on their behalf.

The company is also developing Agent Purchase Protection, which would extend Amex's backing to eligible purchases when registered agents receive intent data and then make mistakes. Squeri did not give a launch date.

UBS analyst Erika Najarian asked whether Amex would let AI agents into its systems, noting that some banks block bots. Squeri said Amex will take a risk-based approach. "We're just not going to let assistants run rogue through our systems," he said.

Access will be limited to agents approved through API or MCP channels, and Squeri said Amex does not want agents "pinging Resy every four seconds." He added that "service and security in AI is going to be even more important."

Membership Inside AI Platforms

On engagement, Squeri said Amex is bringing its membership into ChatGPT. Resy restaurant discovery and reservations launched in ChatGPT earlier this year, and an Amex plugin for Offers is in development. The company's proprietary dining and hotel experiences use OpenAI models.

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Amex's Dining companion uses cardmember spending insights to make personalized restaurant recommendations, and Wishlist Builder in the Amex travel app uses AI to help customers find hotels and plan trips.

Through a partnership with Perplexity, eligible business cardmembers can use Amex-curated AI tools for tasks such as cash flow forecasting and creating marketing campaigns, according to the company.

On customer acquisition, Squeri said Amex is "developing new ways to reach customers through LLMs and agents," combining AI with its proprietary data for marketing.

In service, Amex is using AI to help colleagues find information and resolve issues, and to identify complaint and dispute problems earlier. "We recently launched our first few conversational AI voice agents," Squeri said.

KBW analyst Sanjay Sakhrani asked whether AI could make it easier for customers to game rewards. Squeri said Amex's strategy is not built on competing for points, and that "we do not benefit when people do not use our rewards," pointing to levers such as the $75,000 pass limit on the Platinum card. He said AI also gives Amex better tools to monitor behavior and adjust its value propositions.

Agents for Business Customers

Responding to Wolfe Research analyst Darrin Peller, Squeri acknowledged that Amex has not grown its middle-market commercial business as it wanted.

He tied the Center acquisition, the Nova platform, a Business Savings account, and the Corporate Cashback Card to the goal of competing with Ramp and Brex, and said Amex will introduce more agents to help middle-market and larger businesses.

He cited automation and expense management as capabilities those competitors have used.

American Express reported Q3 2026 revenue of $20.1 billion, up 9% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $4.68, up 13%. Billed business rose 8%, and net card fees rose 17% on an FX-adjusted basis.

The company reaffirmed full-year revenue growth guidance of 10% and raised its adjusted EPS guidance to $17.60 to $17.90. The quarter included a $336 million restructuring charge tied to the elimination of about 5% of global positions.