What problem is Amex trying to solve with its Intent Intelligence Framework?

AI agents can misfire and make unauthorized transactions because large language models are nondeterministic. The framework captures and authenticates a customer's purchase intent before the agent completes the transaction.

How does the framework protect the customer's card number?

An Intent ID and a Proof of Intent Token are created, and the token is used to obtain a secure digital payment credential the agent uses at checkout instead of the customer's actual credit card number.

What do US consumers say about using AI agents to shop?

In a recent Amex Trendex report, 66% of surveyed U.S. consumers said they are likely to use AI agents to research the best price, and 61% said they are likely to use one for a product recommendation over the next 12 months.

Large Language ModelsTop Companies' AI MovesAI Business & IndustryTop Companies AI8m agoOct 14, 2026, 06:30 JST

Amex debuts Intent Intelligence Framework for AI agent purchases

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3 Key Points

What happened
American Express introduced its “Intent Intelligence Framework,” which captures a customer's purchase instructions and authenticates their identity before an AI agent completes a transaction, issuing an Intent ID and a Proof of Intent Token.
Why it matters
Those tokens let an AI agent pay using a secure credential instead of the card number, helping the company manage fraud and dispute issues before they occur, according to Bozian.
What to watch
Bozian will discuss the framework in more detail on October 13 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026's Industry Stage.

WHO IT HITSCard issuers and payment networks evaluating agentic commerce will watch whether this framework becomes a standard, while developers building AI shopping agents may need to plug into an intent-verification step before checkout.

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Context & Analysis

The framework builds on Amex's April launch of Agentic Commerce Experiences, or the ACE Developer Toolkit, which now includes the intent framework. Amex said it has not yet seen an increase in disputes tied to agentic commerce, but it wanted to be proactive as this type of commerce scales. The company is already in discussions with partners across the payments ecosystem about implementing ACE, including the agentic tokens that carry Amex's payment credentials, and it plans to keep developing ACE as agentic commerce evolves.

Bozian described Amex's approach as pulling intent earlier into the transaction flow, which she said helps mitigate some risk before it occurs. The collected instructions can include constraints such as the merchant's name, a maximum budget, and product preferences. How the intent is collected may vary by AI model, but the goal is a framework flexible enough to support all agentic commerce models. She also pointed to a future where agents act more autonomously for reorders of household staples, where price and size may be the only real constraints, making an extra check on whether a transaction matches the customer's intent more valuable.

FAQ

What problem is Amex trying to solve with its Intent Intelligence Framework?: AI agents can misfire and make unauthorized transactions because large language models are nondeterministic. The framework captures and authenticates a customer's purchase intent before the agent completes the transaction.
How does the framework protect the customer's card number?: An Intent ID and a Proof of Intent Token are created, and the token is used to obtain a secure digital payment credential the agent uses at checkout instead of the customer's actual credit card number.
What do US consumers say about using AI agents to shop?: In a recent Amex Trendex report, 66% of surveyed U.S. consumers said they are likely to use AI agents to research the best price, and 61% said they are likely to use one for a product recommendation over the next 12 months.

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