American Express has added insurance to agentic payments to boost consumer confidence in the tool.  

In April, the card giant announced Amex Agent Purchase Protection, which extends its card member backing to registered AI agents. 

With agentic commerce comes risks including fraud and hallucinations, Chief Executive Stephen Squeri said today during American Express’s second-quarter earnings call. 

To counteract those risks, the company launched the agentic tool to offer consumer protections on agentic purchases. 

Amex Agent Purchase Protection safeguards eligible customers from charges related to AI agent error, according to an April release. Card Members who authorize a registered AI agent to make purchases on their behalf through AmEx are eligible for the protection. 

Lack of protections and guardrails is one of the hurdles challenging agentic commerce adoption, Troy Leach, chief strategy officer at Cloud Security Alliance, previously told FinAi News. Widespread adoption of agentic commerce will depend on that consumer confidence. 

For Amex, the insurance program offers “a huge advantage from a trust service and security perspective over our competitors,” Squeri said. 

AI integration 

Along with agentic commerce investments, Amex continues to integrate AI throughout the company — from customer service and travel agents to marketing and fraud management. 

For example, the company has been using machine learning for risk and fraud management for nearly 16 years, Squeri said, adding that Amex is now investing in agentic AI tools to sort unstructured data and improve decisioning. 

“As you look to integrate AI within existing systems, you need to either, as you redo them, embed it withinor you need to put a layer above so that you can integrate these systems in a seamless way,” Squeri said. 

As the payments company deploys AI deeper into its operations, the company expects its operating leverage to rise in the coming quarters, Squeri said. Operating leverage already is improving, clocking in at –200 basis points in Q2 2026 compared to –500 basis points in Q2 2025, according to the company’s earnings report. 

Operating leverage is the delta between rise in revenue compared to rise in expenses.  

“AI is going to play a critical role in that,” Squeri said. “And it’s part of the reason as well that we are investing so much in strategy.” 

Amex reported in Q2: 

• Total revenue of $19.6 billion, up 10% year over year; 

• Total expenses of $14.5 billion, up 12% YoY; 

• As much as a 40% reduction in coding cycle times; 

• Network volume of $516.8 billion, up 9% YoY; and 

• Total interest income up 5% YoY to $6.6 billion. 

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