Why AmEx Is Going Full Steam Ahead in AI

The top brass at American Express Co. indicated early Thursday it’s been spending a good deal of time thinking about the implications of AI and agentic commerce, the shop-and-spend utility enabled by AI. Overall, the company’s conclusion is the technology will spur a boom not only for AmEx but for commerce in general.

Indeed, the risk in not deploying AI is greater than any risk inherent in adopting it, the card company’s top management argues. “You’ll see a tremendous creation of new jobs,” said AmEx chief executive Stephen Squeri. He brushed aside the looming risk of jobs eliminated by the technology while addressing questions early Thursday from equity analysts during a presentation of the company’s first-quarter results.  “Technology over time has fueled GDP, not crushed GDP,” he added, referring to gross domestic product, a measure of a nation’s overall commercial output.

Under Squeri, AmEx has not been slow to adopt AI and its offshoot, agentic commerce. Yet, much is yet to come from the technology, he promised. “We’re warming up in the bullpen on agentic commerce,” he said, “We’re not even in the first inning.”

The company has backed up that sunny forecast in recent months. Only last week it announced it has agreed to acquire Hypercard Network Inc., a developer of expense-management technology based on AI, though it did not disclose the terms of the deal. And days earlier it issued a software development kit called Agentic Commerce Experiences, aimed at helping merchants and consumers tackle the new technology.

Ultimately, the way to guard against risk is to have agents “declare [purchase[ intent and match [that] with what is actually purchased,” said Squeri. “We can get that data. We don’t even have that in the physical world.” Armed with the right information, AmEx can guard against bad actors, he said. Adding that “If our cardmembers are left holdilng the bag, we’ll back our cardmembers.”

Still, despite his optimistic outlook, Squeri conceded agentic commerce “brings added complexity and risk.” Facing up to that reality, he said, is the new imperative for payments companies. “We are well-positioned to help protect our cardmembers and merchants,” he said, promising more AI products will be rolling out later this year.

The company is planning more new products for introduction this year, he noted, including new or enhanced commercial cards with tools to help manage spending and cash flow. He also expects a marketing payoff from AmEx’s recent deal to serve as the official payments partner of the National Football League, starting with the upcoming 2026 season.

AmEx for the quarter posted 11% revenue growth, to $18.9 billion, with a 10% rise in card spending, the fastest growth in three years, according to the company. And restaurant spending grew 9%, though the company saw “softened” growth in airline volume, according to Christoph Le Caillec, chief financial officer.

Total billed business rose 10% year-over-year, up from the 6% growth rate a year ago, while net card fees rang up a 17% increase to $2.8 billion.