Amex’s Luke Gebb outlines AI, agentic commerce, blockchain

Luke Gebb, head of global innovation at American Express, announced three initiatives aimed at enabling commerce conducted by AI agents and using public blockchains: the ACE Developer Kit, Agent Purchase Protection and Passport, an NFT-based travel record.

The ACE Developer Kit is a framework of technical specifications and operational rules that Amex says will guide how AI agents transact on behalf of card members. The company intends the kit to make clear when an agent is authorized to act, to enable agent-initiated payments that Amex and merchants can trust, and to define integration points for merchant systems and payment flows.

Agent Purchase Protection is a cardholder safety policy that applies when a registered agent shares a card member’s intent, Amex approves the transaction and the merchant delivers the expected goods or services. If an approved agent makes an error that results in an unwanted charge, Amex will credit the card member so they are not out of pocket.

Passport is a travel feature that issues a unique non-fungible token (NFT) on a public blockchain for customers who use the Amex mobile app while traveling. The product stores a digital travel history, including places visited and optional photos, and is presented as a travel record rather than a blockchain product. Gebb said most users will not need to interact with or understand the underlying blockchain.

Amex Digital Labs, the in-house innovation team Gebb leads, has about 120 staff and focuses on turning emerging-technology ideas into market-ready products. The lab’s stated goal is to push roughly 20 projects into pilots each year, stabilize the successful ones, and transfer finished products to business units for wider release. The team works on projects that business units may not have time or specific expertise to build.

Gebb described two main technology tracks for the lab: agentic commerce and public blockchains, while continuing work on digital wallets and payment integrations. He compared the current technological changes to earlier waves such as the internet and mobile, adding that the pace of recent innovation is faster. “There are different waves. You can draw comparisons at this moment to the advent of the internet itself, or the mobile wave,” he said. “However, the pace of change and innovation we’ve seen recently is probably faster than we’ve seen before.”

On governance, Gebb said the lab seeks risk-adjusted processes: full regulatory and control reviews for high-risk payment systems, and lighter reviews for lower-risk consumer features. He described the lab’s role as clearing internal blockages to speed projects that meet appropriate controls.

Gebb rejoined American Express in 2002 after an earlier stint with the company and time at a startup. He formed Amex Digital Labs in 2017 and became global head of innovation in October. He expects this year to focus on foundational work and early deployments of agentic commerce, with transactions appearing in select use cases over the next 12 months.