Amex Chief: ACE Kit, Agent Protection, Passport NFT

American Express’ innovation unit announced three new products: an ACE Developer Kit for agentic commerce, Amex Agent Purchase Protection to cover agent errors, and Passport, a blockchain-based travel NFT available in the company’s mobile app. Luke Gebb, head of Amex Digital Labs, introduced the initiatives as part of the lab’s work on AI agents and public blockchains.

The ACE Developer Kit provides technical specifications and a framework for how software agents should transact on behalf of card members. The kit defines how agents should authenticate a card member’s intent, interact with merchants and handle payment flows. Amex said the kit is intended for developers building agent-enabled commerce and related integrations.

Amex Agent Purchase Protection commits to crediting card members when an approved agent makes an error that produces an incorrect charge, provided the member’s intent was clear and the merchant delivered as expected. Gebb noted the policy will apply when a registered agent shares card member intent with Amex, the company approves the transaction and the agent is the source of the error: “we’re going to cover the card member and credit them so that they are not out of pocket for that kind of situation.”

Passport creates a unique nonfungible token that records a customer’s travel history and memories inside the Amex app. The company said most customers will interact with a digital collection that mirrors a physical passport, while the underlying ledger and NFT mechanics remain hidden to the user.

Amex Digital Labs was formed in 2017 and operates as an internal innovation hub. Gebb leads the team, which the company says includes about 120 people and aims to pilot roughly 20 projects each year. Successful pilots are tested with customers and then transitioned to business units for broader deployment.

The lab is focused on two main technology lines: agentic commerce, where software agents buy goods or services on behalf of customers, and public blockchains. Work on agentic commerce includes enabling payments for agents, making loyalty offers and booking tools available to agents and building conversational agent experiences inside Amex’s app and website. Gebb described the current period as “a year of foundations and a year of beginnings,” and expects transactions to appear in early, trustable areas in the next 12 months.

Gebb emphasized that projects must follow Amex’s governance and risk processes with oversight matched to a project’s risk level. High-risk efforts, such as new ways to move money, will go through full compliance checks, while lower-risk features aimed at discovery and convenience will face lighter review. Gebb explained part of his role is removing internal barriers so teams can move faster through those processes.

The Labs are also exploring stablecoins, though those efforts remain at an early stage. Amex said it will continue supporting existing digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay while it tests and scales agent and blockchain capabilities. The company indicated more product and partnership announcements tied to agentic commerce and blockchain will follow as pilots progress.