American Express Works With Partners on Agentic Commerce Standards

American Express is working with EMVCo and the x402 Foundation to advance common standards for agentic commerce, alongside a framework for carrying authenticated purchase instructions through payment processing.

The company has made its Intent Intelligence framework for purchase approvals available through the Amex Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) Developer Kit. The framework uses a Create Intent API to record customer instructions and limits, including a merchant or spending cap. Customers authenticate their identity and approve the terms before the system creates a unique Intent ID and Proof of Intent Token.

The token can be used to obtain a limited-purpose digital payment credential that replaces the customer’s real card number. The Intent ID and token serve as controls in authorization decisions, fraud prevention and dispute handling.

Payment credentials can be limited by merchant, expiration date and transaction count. They can be set up for one transaction or for multiple uses across one or more merchants.

Customers can also create, update or cancel authenticated purchase instructions during a transaction’s lifecycle. These controls keep the approved terms available for payment authorization and later dispute handling, while the new standards work brings EMVCo and the x402 Foundation into American Express’ broader agentic commerce effort.