American Express ACE (Agentic Commerce Experiences)
American Express's initiative for supporting and securing purchases initiated by AI shopping agents.
What is American Express ACE (Agentic Commerce Experiences)?
ACE is American Express's initiative for helping AI shopping agents safely use an Amex card and card-member benefits, while giving Amex a way to verify those purchases and protect the cardholder if something goes wrong. If an AI agent books a flight using a registered Amex account, ACE is the set of tools that let the merchant confirm the agent is legitimately acting for that cardholder, and that extend Amex's normal purchase protections to that agent-made transaction. It's Amex's answer to the same trust problem every card network is solving for AI-driven purchases.
Why it matters
American Express debuted the ACE Developer Kit on April 14, 2026, providing developers technical specifications covering agent verification, account enablement, "intent intelligence" to confirm purchase intent was accurately captured, payment credentials for verified agents, and cart-context sharing. Alongside the kit, Amex announced "Amex Agent Purchase Protection," described as an industry-first commitment extending its existing card-member purchase protections to transactions initiated by registered AI agents. ACE is Amex's entry in the same wave of card-network agentic-commerce programs as Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol and Mastercard's Agent Pay, and Amex is also a listed endorsing partner of Google's Universal Commerce Protocol.