American Express adds a framework to verify AI purchase intent before payment

The new Intent Intelligence Framework is meant to reduce unauthorized or mistargeted purchases when AI agents handle checkout.

American Express has added an Intent Intelligence Framework to its agentic commerce stack to verify what a customer actually meant to buy before an AI agent can finish payment, a move aimed at reducing unauthorized or mistargeted purchases. The framework starts with a Create Intent API that records constraints such as merchant, budget, and product preferences, then has the customer authenticate and approve that intent. Amex says the flow generates an Intent ID and a Proof of Intent Token, which are used to mint a secure digital payment credential for checkout instead of exposing the customer’s card number. The company says the new framework extends its April launch of the ACE Developer Toolkit and is meant to become an industry standard as agentic commerce grows. Amex also cited its Trendex survey, where 66% of U.S. consumers said they were likely to use AI agents for price research and 61% for product recommendations over the next 12 months.