Record what to buy, then swap in a payment credential

TechCrunch reports that American Express introduced a framework to capture and authenticate a customer's purchase intent before an agent completes the transaction. The name is the Intent Intelligence Framework. It starts with a Create Intent API that records the purchase instructions and constraints in the request, such as the merchant's name, a maximum budget, and other product preferences. The customer authenticates and signs the intent the agent captured. The system then creates an Intent ID for that intent and a Proof of Intent Token carrying the high-level constraints. The token is used to obtain a digital payment credential. At checkout the agent uses the credential, not the customer's actual card number.

The piece is timestamped 6:00 AM Pacific time on October 13.

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They have not seen a rise in disputes

Amex told TechCrunch it has not yet seen an increase in disputes because of agentic commerce. It wants the check in place before that kind of transaction grows. In a Trendex survey the company provided, 66% of surveyed U.S. consumers said they are likely to use agents to look for a better price on a product or service over the next 12 months, and 61% said they are likely to use one for a recommendation. The company gave those figures to the reporter. The piece does not give a sample size or a sampling method.

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Stopping a wrong purchase is their example

Hannah Bozian, a vice president for agent partnerships, gave an example: the customer asks for white Nike sneakers in size 9, and the agent submits Adidas. Amex says it could stop that transaction because it does not match the intent. That is the company's description of a check, not a published block rate. The piece also does not say when the API opens to cardholders.

Bozian also says many agents today ask for consent before buying, and that some repeat purchases may be more automatic later, such as household goods limited only by price and size. That is their expectation for later, not a permission already turned on.

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