Credit Cards Start Picking Up the AI Tab

Credit card rewards have always tracked what consumers value most.

Airline miles arrived when business travel was the aspiration. Cash back followed when simplicity beat complexity.

Now, artificial intelligence subscriptions are becoming a monthly fixed cost for millions of consumers and businesses, and issuers are starting to treat them the same way they once treated streaming credits and rideshare discounts.

In May, American Express added a $300 annual statement credit for ChatGPT Business subscriptions to its Business Platinum and Business Gold cards, with no annual fee increase. Enrollment is required.

On July 10, Moonshot AI’s Kimi, Agricultural Bank of China and American Express jointly issued what the companies described as the world’s first AI-native credit card, Pandaily reported. Rather than layering AI access onto a traditional card, the Kimi card makes AI membership the central organizing principle. Card tiers correspond directly to Kimi AI membership levels, and cardholders earn AI compute credits with every purchase.

AI Subscriptions Are Becoming the New Lounge Access

The Amex ChatGPT credit fits the issuer’s established model. The Business Gold card, for example, already carries credits for Squarespace, Walmart Plus, Grubhub and office supply stores. Adding ChatGPT Business reflects where small business spending is going.

ChatGPT Business costs $20 per user per month billed annually, with a two-user minimum, putting the plan’s lowest annual cost at $480, CNBC Select reported May 19.

The $300 annual credit covers most of that first-year cost, leaving businesses with roughly $180 in out-of-pocket costs. No change in cardholder behavior is required beyond enrollment.

The Kimi card is structurally different. Every purchase generates AI compute credits that flow directly into the user’s Kimi account, unlocking additional agent capacity, priority access during peak usage and early access to new model features, according to the Pandaily report. The standard version carries an $80 annual fee, waived in the first year and after 10 transactions in subsequent years.

It is the first of at least five AI-linked credit cards launched by major Chinese banks in the past month. China Merchants Bank partnered with MiniMax in June, the report said. Ping An Bank launched an AI computing card with UnionPay and Tencent Cloud, also in June. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank teamed with UnionPay and Alibaba Cloud. MYbank partnered with Alibaba Cloud to offer up to 10 million tokens to small business and microbusiness operators.

The Rewards Race Is Shifting From Travel to Technology

The timing reflects pressure on both sides of the market.

In China, credit card issuance has declined for 14 consecutive quarters, falling from a peak of 807 million cards in the third quarter of 2022 to 687 million by the first quarter of 2026, BigGo Finance reported Wednesday (July 15), citing the People’s Bank of China.

Banks in a shrinking card market need differentiated products. AI-linked benefits target the segment most likely to generate both card spending and platform revenue.

In the United States, consumers are moving between credit cards, buy now, pay later plans, and digital wallets, depending on context, weakening loyalty to any single product.

Visa Vice President, Head of Global Loyalty for Value-Added Services Avery Miller told PYMNTS in June that as agentic commerce accelerates, financial institutions are “fighting for every transaction” rather than for top-of-wallet status.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “The Pay Later Ecosystem Report: Consumers Will Let AI Recommend Pay Later, But They Want Control” found that 39% of U.S. consumers use AI for payment-related activities.

The card that subsidizes the AI tool a consumer uses every day has a structural advantage over the card that subsidizes a flight they take twice a year.

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