SAP Concur's blog discusses how AI is transforming travel management by connecting booking, expense, and approval processes. It cites that organizations using AI-powered Concur Travel and Expense report 19.2% faster travel bookings, 21% lower travel and expense costs, and 78% improvement in policy compliance.
SAP Concur's blog offers practical tips for business travelers, covering preparation, during-trip management, and post-trip expense reporting. It emphasizes using the company's unified travel platform, submitting expense reports promptly, avoiding common mistakes, and leveraging mobile apps and AI tools.
This week's travel tech news briefs cover multiple partnerships and product launches: Visa and Trip.com Group signed an MOU to deepen collaboration on travel payments in Asia Pacific; Emerging Travel Group expanded its integration with SynXis to include independent hotels; NOL Universe appointed a head of global business; Atlas signed a direct distribution partnership with Wizz Air; Allegiant selected Navan as its internal travel management platform; Outpayce launched split and multi-card payment capabilities; HBX Group and Lastminute.com expanded their dynamic packaging partnership; Europa-Park partnered with Bookingkit for ticket distribution; Wego introduced stablecoin payments; Fliggy l…
SAP Concur has been named #1 in the G2 Summer 2026 Expense Management Grid Report, also ranking #1 across 38 G2 Grid Reports. The recognition is based on feedback from 7,000+ customers, highlighting ease of use, automated workflows, and the value of integrated travel and expense management.
SAP Concur introduces Joule, embedding AI directly into travel and expense workflows for autonomous spend management. Joule handles natural language booking requests, auto-generates expense reports, applies policy in real time, and proactively prompts for missing information. It is embedded in SAP Concur, requiring no additional tools, and helps travel managers, finance teams, and employees improve efficiency, reduce violations, and minimize rework. Joule is built on SAP's trusted data foundation, ensuring enterprise-grade security and responsible AI practices.
FCM Travel will widely release a 'fundamentally reimagined' version of its AI tool Sam next month across more than 90 countries. Sam will act as a new AI ecosystem, working seamlessly with travelers, travel managers, and agents. The tool adheres to spending thresholds, approval processes, and supplier preferences configured by travel managers, and will not show out-of-policy hotels or premium fares. Sam can also hand off travelers to live agents. FCM emphasizes its proprietary technology architecture prevents hallucination and ensures enterprise-grade accuracy.
American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has announced a definitive agreement to be acquired by Long Lake Management for $9.50 per share in cash, valuing the company at approximately $6.3 billion. The transaction is supported by investors including General Catalyst and Alpha Wave, and is expected to close in the second half of 2026. Amex GBT will become a private company, and the American Express brand licensing agreement will remain in place.
American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) reported strong Q1 2026 financial results, with revenue up 35% year-over-year to $840 million and adjusted EBITDA of $150 million. The company highlighted total new wins value of $3.4 billion and a 96% customer retention rate, and launched AI-powered Complete and next-gen Egencia. Due to the announced acquisition by Long Lake, the company has suspended earnings calls and financial guidance.
Ctrip Corporate Travel officially launched its AI Open Platform, modularizing and standardizing AI capabilities through an MCP open system for customers and partners. The platform offers three-tier open architecture (standard, advanced, custom) covering information queries, resource recommendations, itinerary planning. Claimed improvements: booking efficiency +85%, compliance accuracy 90%, cost reduction 15%.
This week's travel tech news: Amex GBT, Shell Aviation, and Google extend SAF partnership; HTS partners with Hopper to upgrade Avion Rewards; Agoda opens Bangkok office; SqaaS launches ShellBot; Capital A names deputy CEO; NextTrip adds agentic tools; PriceLabs launches Revenue Accelerator; Hostaway launches website solution; PCL Construction selects Navan; JTB launches Teal Essential; CityBlue Hotels partners with Inntelo.
A survey commissioned by SAP Concur reveals that business travel is crucial for career growth, but access is uneven. 51% of U.S. adults traveled for work in the past year, with 20% being frequent travelers. 76% believe business travel opens up opportunities, but younger and lower-income groups feel it is out of reach. Frequent travelers enjoy more premium experiences but also face operational strains like expense reporting hassles.
A SAP Concur article explores the benefits and risks of AI in corporate travel management. AI can reduce booking and expense time by 53%, but fraud risks increase, with 32% of travelers thinking colleagues might use AI to falsify expenses. The article emphasizes balancing benefits and risks through training and ethical guidelines.
IDC research shows that businesses using SAP Concur Travel & Expense gain over $3.1 million in average annual benefits, with a three-year ROI of 406%. Savings come from travel bookings, expense management efficiency, and improved compliance, including reduced errors and time savings.
The article introduces Ctrip Corporate Travel as a business travel management platform, highlighting its comprehensive resources, intelligent control, and global services. Serving over 3/5 of Fortune 500 companies and 1 million growing enterprises, Ctrip Corporate Travel helps businesses save an average of 30% on travel costs through integrated resources, technology, and data.
Navan has introduced Navan Edge, an AI-powered personalized travel assistant for business travelers without access to managed travel programs. It offers hyper-personalized recommendations and, with approval, can rebook flights, alert hotels about delays, and adjust dinner reservations. Currently available on iOS in the U.S., it supports hotel bookings only, with flight and restaurant bookings expected soon. Navan Edge aims to serve frequent travelers who lack corporate tool support.
Solutions for Business Travel (S4BT) has acquired Travel Centric Technology, the parent company of London-based HotelHub, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition enhances S4BT's technological capabilities, expands its engagement across major travel markets, and broadens its global footprint, particularly into the UK. HotelHub will enable S4BT to deliver a fully integrated corporate hotel offering to TMCs. HotelHub becomes the eighth corporate travel brand in S4BT's portfolio.
SAP Concur recaps 2025 innovations, including general availability of Joule AI assistant, Receipt Analysis Agent, Complete unified solution with Amex GBT, Microsoft Teams integration, enhanced Uber for Business integration, new NetSuite connector, support for over 90 languages, and more. These updates aim to improve travel and expense management efficiency, compliance, and user experience.
Based on user reviews from TrustRadius and G2, SAP Concur outperforms Coupa in overall rating, willingness to buy again, value for price, and travel and expense management features. SAP Concur scores higher on mobile experience and AI automation, while Coupa is less mobile-friendly.
SAP Concur research shows nearly 7 in 10 travel managers say their budget doesn't reflect travel's importance. Leading travel managers are turning data into actionable stories for leadership and adopting AI tools to improve compliance and efficiency. 95% of business travelers are willing to use AI-enabled booking options, and SAP Concur adoption can reduce travel costs by 23%, speed bookings by 19.2%, and increase policy compliance by 28%.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk), an intelligent travel and spend management platform, launched a global ad campaign including its first CTV ad, exposing 'shadow work' costing businesses over $1.7 trillion annually. The campaign humorously shows how hidden tasks like booking trips and filing expenses derail breakthroughs. Perk aims to eliminate these manual tasks with its AI-native platform.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) launched Perk Events, an AI-powered module automating the full team event planning lifecycle, from venue selection to travel, attendee management, and communication, supporting events from 9 to 5,000 people. Perk's research found 71% of employees have helped plan team events, with 50% doing so outside their core responsibilities; top pain points were venue sourcing, budget approvals, and travel coordination (39%, 39%, 37%). Forrester Consulting research commissioned by Perk shows 57% of companies have minimally or non-automated event processes.
Ctrip Corporate Travel launched 'Zhaocaitong', a one-stop intelligent procurement and management platform for corporate negotiated resources, offering corporate clients a full-chain solution covering procurement analysis, performance monitoring and data review. The platform has five core modules: intelligent hotel recommendations, precise procurement, online contracting, performance monitoring and insight analysis. Data from Ctrip Corporate Travel's travel report platform shows companies can save about 19% of travel costs on average by signing tripartite negotiated rates; companies can select hotels to sign negotiated rates based on their needs, with potential cost optimisation of 10%-25%.…
SAP Concur announced that its travel and expense management product has again been recognized as a 2026 G2 Best Software Award winner in Enterprise Travel and Expense Management, and earned multiple Leader designations across small-business, mid-market and enterprise categories. G2's quarterly Grid Reports are powered entirely by real, verified user feedback. SAP Concur said the recognition reflects continued customer confidence in its product's integration, ease of use and performance at scale.
SAP Concur's Global Business Travel Survey polled 700 travel managers across seven markets from April 30 to May 12, 2025. 78% expected their company's 2025 travel budget to increase, versus only 7% expecting a decrease, with Canada at 92%. 69% said budgets do not reflect how important business travel is to success, and 67% said company leaders undervalue their role. 43% of travel managers said they have the most influence over travel program changes, while 41% named the CFO. 99% said their company has updated, is updating, or is considering updating travel policies or training to protect employee data from cyber threats; 99% would be comfortable with travelers using AI for booking, rebookin…
On December 15, 2025, Ctrip Corporate Travel and DerbySoft announced completion of phase one of a new corporate travel RFP (negotiated-rate sourcing) solution and signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The solution uses travel data visualization and intelligent analysis to automatically recommend target cities and hotels. Companies and hotel suppliers can log in through Ctrip Corporate Travel's existing entry point to view and handle quotes, while the system is deeply connected with a ticketing platform to synchronize and track RFP status in real time. The new architecture allows RFP setup and hotel configuration to be completed within one working day, with a hotel response rate of 99.7%…
SAP Concur published a blog highlighting how its travel and expense management solutions use AI innovation, automated compliance, and spend visibility to help customers like Mastercard and ACV Auctions improve efficiency and save costs.
Ji Chengzhou, Chief Product Officer of Ctrip Corporate Travel, spoke at the Boao CEO Innovation Business Forum in Boao, Hainan, sharing the company's global expansion and AI-driven digital management practices. Ctrip Corporate Travel's outbound strategy stems from the growing internationalization needs of Chinese enterprises; it has established localized service capabilities in more than 30 countries, providing one-stop travel management support covering itinerary, settlement and compliance for Chinese companies going global. Ji said going global is not simply replicating the domestic model but requires deep understanding of local markets. Noting the relatively low level of technology integ…
SAP Concur Travel and Expense has again won the TrustRadius Buyer's Choice Award, which is based entirely on customer sentiment. More than 1,500 verified reviews highlight time savings, helpful mobile features, budget visibility, and intuitive workflows. SAP Concur previously won the 2025 Buyer's Choice Award, Top-Rated status in both Expense Management and Travel Management categories, and the 2022 Most Loved Award.
At the 2025 Ctrip Corporate Travel Partner Conference, CEO Song Tao said overseas client numbers nearly quadrupled year-on-year, with the Asia-Pacific region achieving strong results as the first step in its globalization strategy. Ctrip Corporate Travel's self-operated sites cover 16 countries and regions, and through partners its service capability covers more than 30 countries and regions. The company aims to evolve from 'efficiency improvement' to 'value co-creation,' offering differentiated travel management services for companies of different sizes.
On the SAP Concur Conversations podcast, Chloe Carver, Head of Corporate Travel Consulting at Acquis Consulting Group, shared how to build a traveler-centric travel program. She recommends policies that guide behavior rather than control it, treating implementation as a key transformation opportunity, and prioritizing traveler experience as the foundation of compliance. Host Jeanne Dion emphasized that organizations should not undermine their values through over-regulation.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk), a travel and spend management platform, signed a multi-year partnership to become the Official Work Automation Partner of the future Audi F1 Team. Perk will use its AI-powered platform to automate manual tasks such as travel bookings, expense management and invoice processing, supporting the team's complex operations across 24 race destinations on five continents. Perk branding will appear on designated team assets and trackside environments. Perk serves more than 10,000 companies worldwide.
UOB Travel, the travel management company subsidiary of Singapore-based United Overseas Bank (UOB), has selected Amadeus as its digital transformation partner to develop an updated end-to-end travel system. UOB Travel will implement digital retailing, automation, productivity and back-office solutions, and gain access to modern distribution channels including NDC for broader travel content. UOB Travel's services span managed business travel, bespoke itineraries and cruises for its cardmembers and banking customers.
SAP Concur executives predict 2026 T&E trends: AI and predictive analytics will drive personalization but require trust and transparency; industry consolidation continues, such as the SAP Concur-Amex GBT alliance; AI may make traditional expense reports obsolete; SMBs will invest in technology for efficiency; finance departments need a 'failure-forward' culture for AI adoption.
TravelPerk announced its rebrand to Perk, launching an AI-native platform that unites travel and spend management, with a mission to eliminate 'shadow work' — the invisible, non-core tasks employees do outside their main job. Forrester Consulting research commissioned by Perk found shadow work costs businesses $1.7 trillion a year across six major economies (US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands), with employees losing about seven hours per week on average. Perk says its platform automates two thirds (67%) of the most frustrating non-core work and adds an AI-native spend management module plus Perk Pay physical cards. The company has crossed $300m in annualized revenue and established…
Amadeus Cytric has launched its global Prime Partner Program to recognize and empower partners across the business travel ecosystem. At its core is a group of TMCs meeting rigorous performance, governance, and strategic alignment standards, including Arrive Agencies, BCD Travel, DER BUSINESS Travel, Lufthansa City Center, Nautalia Empresas, Travel Support, and Viajes El Corte Inglés Empresas. Prime Partners gain access to operational support and a first look at new Amadeus Cytric innovations.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) and Amadeus have extended their distribution agreement to include NDC content, bringing Perk's NDC connectivity to 25 airlines. New connections include Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, Scandinavian Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines. Perk will continue sourcing a wide range of other content from Amadeus, including air, hotel, mobility and transfer services, plus automation and servicing solutions. Perk says it has more than 10,000 customers globally, including Wise and Red Bull.
Amadeus and business travel and spend management platform TravelPerk have extended their distribution agreement to include NDC content. TravelPerk will continue sourcing a wide range of content from Amadeus, including air, hotel, mobility and transfer services, plus automation and servicing solutions, giving its customers broader, richer content and greater choice. TravelPerk says its NDC capabilities now extend to 25 airlines and that it has more than 10,000 customers globally.
SAP Concur published an article on the benefits of integrating travel and expense management solutions. Bringing Concur Travel and Concur Expense onto a single platform delivers 2x faster expense report processing, 55% reporting significant cost reductions in travel booking and expense reporting (average 21% decrease), and 80% improved compliance. The article lists six reasons, including scalability, broad travel content (11x more policy-compliant hotel options, 30+ low-cost global air carriers and NDC content, rail access through Trainline), transparency, and end-to-end integration. SAP ranked #1 for 2023 market share in the T&E market with 49.6%.
SAP Concur released the eBook Leading the Charge, Leading the Change in Travel Management, outlining modernization of its travel platform. Concur Travel improved car rental, hotel, air and rail content, with air connectivity ensuring full content access including GDS, NDC, EDIFACT and aggregators. AI and machine learning identify booking patterns and spot potential fraud and policy violations; the Joule AI assistant personalizes flight recommendations; Request Assistant uses generative AI for trip cost estimates; and ExpenseIt analyzes hotel folios. New virtual card payments for hotels add spending controls and visibility.
SAP Concur released a guide for finance leaders on AI return-on-investment, covering AI terminology, AI-powered spend management features and steps to accelerate ROI. The article states companies using its solutions report a 92% audit automation rate and expense report approval times under two days. SAP Concur offers AI-powered solutions including Concur Travel, Concur Expense, ExpenseIt and Concur Invoice, citing data showing AI reduces travel booking time by 19.2% and improves policy compliance by 78%.