American Express is introducing a new framework aimed at capturing and authenticating a customer’s purchase intent before an AI agent finalizes a transaction. The initiative arrives as personal AI bots increasingly execute transactions on behalf of users, bringing potential risks of misfiring or unauthorized purchases due to the nondeterministic nature of large language models.
The Intent Intelligence Framework
Named the “Intent Intelligence Framework,” American Express hopes the system will become an industry standard for transactions powered by artificial intelligence. Hannah Bozian, Amex’s VP of Agentic Partnerships and Strategy, stated that the company wants to ensure agentic commerce remains seamless, trusted, and secure.
The release follows the April launch of the ACE Developer Toolkit (Agentic Commerce Experiences), which incorporates services including the new intent framework. Amex reported that while it has not yet observed an increase in disputes stemming from agentic commerce, it is building the technology proactively as this type of commerce scales. According to an Amex Trendex report, 66% of surveyed U.S. consumers indicated they are likely to use AI agents to research prices, and 61% are likely to use them for product or service recommendations over the coming 12 months.
How the system works
The framework begins with a Create Intent API designed to capture customer purchase instructions alongside constraints such as merchant names, maximum budgets, and product preferences. After the user authenticates their identity and signs off on the captured intent, the system generates a unique Intent ID and a Proof of Intent Token containing high-level constraints.
This token is subsequently used to obtain a secure digital payment credential that the agent uses at checkout instead of the customer’s actual credit card number. Amex notes that this method pulls intent earlier into the transaction flow to mitigate risks before they occur, such as an agent mistakenly ordering Adidas shoes when the user requested Nike sneakers. The company is currently discussing implementation with partners across the payments ecosystem.
