Amex Acquires Hyper to Boost AI and Expense Management Offerings

The deal, announced Thursday (April 16), is designed to add to American Express’ artificial intelligence expertise across its commercial services business, with Hyper’s team helping Amex build agentic and AI-powered automation tools for businesses.

“Our customers want smarter, more efficient ways to manage expenses so they can focus on what’s next for their business, and AI has the potential to transform the way businesses get things done,” Raymond Joabar, group president of Global Commercial Services at American Express, said in a news release provided to PYMNTS.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Hyper, a team with deep expertise in designing and deploying AI agents, as we build next-generation AI capabilities into our products and services, including our expense management platform launching later this year.”

Founded in 2022, Hyper focuses on using AI agents to turn expense management from a manual to more autonomous process. These agents, the news release added, can “auto-categorize and file expenses, check them against budget and policy, and send reminders that submissions are due.”

Hyper teamed with Amex in 2024 to launch the Hypercard Rewards American Express card with embedded AI-powered expense agents employing the Agile Partner Platform.

In related news, American Express announced this week that it would extend its customer protection to registered AI agent purchases.

That means the company’s Agent Purchase Protection will protect eligible customers from charges related to AI agent error if the card member has allowed an AI agent to make a purchase and that agent sends American Express the customer’s authenticated purchase intent, the company said in a news release.

PYMNTS wrote last year about the way AI was helping businesses move past the use of manual systems for things like accounts payable (AP) work. These manual systems are error prone and can “slow payments, obscure cash flow, hinder spend management and heighten fraud exposure,” that report said.

Automation with AI technology has begun to emerge as an answer — not only speeding invoice workflows but also allowing data-driven financial decisions at scale.

“While adoption is growing, with nearly three-quarters of organizations using AI in AP, automation maturity remains modest, leaving many manual steps in place. Trust is essential to achieving full automation maturity,” that report added. “Teams that succeed on this point stand to transform AP into a strategic advantage, unlocking real-time visibility, stronger control and smarter working-capital decisions.”