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American Express (NYSE:AXP) has launched a global AI upskilling program for employees at small and medium-sized businesses.
The company has partnered with Generation and Scholarship America to offer scholarships focused on AI courses and certifications.
The initiative focuses on skills gaps and aims to help small and medium-sized business customers use AI tools more effectively.
American Express, which trades at $321.9, is adding a new angle to its small business offerings with this AI training push. The company’s stock returned 2.0% over the past week, 5.3% over the last month, and 17.8% and 124.3% in one and three years, reflecting long-term value creation for shareholders. In this context, deeper support for SME customers through AI education is considered an important extension of existing commercial relationships.
The new AI program expands American Express’ role beyond payments and lending to skills development for its core small business customers. A key consideration for investors tracking NYSE:AXP is how effectively these courses and scholarships lead to stronger customer stickiness, higher product adoption, and more resilient small business spending over time.
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The AI upskilling and scholarship programs come alongside a series of recent capital and product decisions that demonstrate how American Express seeks to deepen its relationships with higher-value customers. For small business customers, AI training is not about short-term transaction volume, but about embedding American Express into their daily operations through education, tools, and ongoing community touchpoints such as sponsorship at the New York City Small Business Expo. For investors, this could be important for long-term spending resiliency and card retention, especially as competitors such as JPMorgan Chase, Capital One and Citi also court small businesses with perks-heavy cards and software integrations. The move also comes on the heels of American Express reaffirming its 2026 guidance and emphasizing technology investments as a use for capital following the sale of its Global Business Travel stake, so the AI effort can be read as part of a focus on technology and small businesses rather than a standalone marketing effort.
How does this fit into the American Express story?
AI training and scholarships align with the existing narrative around premium and youth customers by giving small business employees the tools to become more comfortable with AI-powered workflows. This can increase card spending and network usage over time.
At the same time, redirecting resources to education and nonprofit partnerships can increase variable customer engagement costs. Analysts have already warned that compensation and benefits costs are a key risk if they outpace revenue growth.
The story surrounding American Express has largely focused on card economics, credit quality, and travel-related spending. The specific impact of building AI skills on SME staff is not fully understood and may introduce softer relationship-driven performance drivers.
Understanding a company’s value starts with understanding its story. Check out one of the top articles in American Express’ Simply Wall St community and decide what it’s worth to you.
Risks and rewards investors should consider
⚠️ If AI tools reduce the need for certain back-office operations in small and medium-sized businesses, it could change card spending categories and reduce the effectiveness of existing reward structures, especially for competitors such as Visa and Mastercard, which may emphasize various AI-related partnerships.
⚠️ If small business adoption is slow, or companies are hesitant to change established workflows, spending on AI programs, scholarships, and related marketing may increase, putting pressure on profit margins.
🎁 By helping small business employees develop practical AI skills, American Express has the potential to increase the stickiness of a small business ecosystem that already spans cards, loans, and events like the Small Business Expo.
🎁 The AI skill improvement efforts, coupled with strong first quarter earnings, 16% dividend increase, and continued share buybacks, demonstrate management’s confidence in leveraging both financial and non-financial levers to keep the business attractive to long-term partners and shareholders.
Future points of interest
From here, it will be worth looking at how many small business employees are enrolling in the AI program, and whether American Express correlates participation with spending patterns and product adoption. Investors can also track how often new co-branded products and AI-related products appear, such as MyLowe’s Pro Rewards American Express Card. That’s because the combination signals a broader push to link AI capabilities directly to card usage. Comments on technology investments, variable customer engagement costs, and small business spending in upcoming earnings calls will help indicate whether this AI effort is a meaningful driver of American Express’ story or primarily a branding exercise.
To stay on top of how the latest news impacts the American Express investment story, visit the American Express community page to stay up to date on the top stories in our community.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary using only unbiased methodologies, based on historical data and analyst forecasts, and articles are not intended to be financial advice. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take into account your objectives or financial situation. We aim to provide long-term, focused analysis based on fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest announcements or qualitative material from price-sensitive companies. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Companies discussed in this article include AXP.
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