In today’s fast-moving world, businesses must quickly adapt to new disruptions or risk falling behind. But what does this mean for the travel and expense (T&E) landscape? And how will evolving T&E trends impact your organization?
For example, we have already noted that emerging AI use cases, such as predictive analytics for expense monitoring, are beginning to simplify expense monitoring and reporting. Additionally, in reaction to changes in strength in the industry, controlling corporations (TMCs) have continued to consolidate.
SAP Concur experts expect those trends to continue, and even accelerate, through 2025. In anticipation of the trends that will shape spending in 2025, here are four key predictions to keep in mind.
More benefits for your investment
In 2023, inflation pushed travel spending beyond pre-pandemic levels, with business travel spending expected to reach $1.48 trillion by the end of 2024, according to the Global Business Travel Association. But travel volume didn’t keep up, resulting in higher costs for fewer trips. As inflation slows, companies can expect to get more value from their T&E budgets.
Meeting traveler expectations
Travelers will request more personalized self-service booking options, as well as real-time updates on disruptions, protection, and fitness issues. The mixed number of commercial and recreational activities is also increasing. Companies will need to offer flexible policies to maintain staff productivity and satisfaction.
Stay ahead
To stay ahead of the curve, focus on delivering streamlined, personalized booking reports for employees, with features like loyalty recognition, detailed transportation and hotel information, and real-time alerts. Apps deserve to help employees with everything from passport renewals to actual updates. Regular updates on political unrest and environmental risks.
On the back end, bringing T&E into one integrated platform is key. Disjointed systems only increase costs and errors, while a unified system enhances the user experience and enables smarter budgeting, better negotiations and fewer mistakes.
AI’s impact on T&E
AI will continue to make waves in expense management. As finance and groups adjust their policies to accommodate AI, automation will reduce the administrative burden. AI will increasingly take on responsibilities such as validating transaction compliance, identifying fraud, and detecting spending patterns that go unnoticed by humans in a different way. Expect smarter audits, fewer manual expense reports, and more time spent on exceptions.
AI will also improve the booking experience, providing personalized itinerary recommendations based on the traveler’s personal tastes and the organization’s policies. Generative AI will make price prediction easier, making pre-trip approvals more accurate, while chatbots will provide real-time travel updates and disruption management.
Two paths for AI
By 2025, financial leaders will embrace AI to improve decision-making, forecast spending, and manage risk. Travelers, however, will remain cautiously positive about AI. Although SAP Concur’s sixth annual global business travel survey found that 95% of business travelers are open to employing AI, they use it as a “hands-on assistant” rather than relying exclusively on it to manage reservations or send reports of expenses.
TMC consolidation and problems
TMCs will continue to consolidate and gain negotiating strength with suppliers. This can lead to lower prices and better deals for customers. Additionally, the trend toward content fragmentation will slow; By 2025, airlines and business travelers will take full advantage of New Delivery Capability (NDC), adding greater customization, bundling and seamless pricing.
Capitalizing on trends
To adapt to those changes, ensure your T&E formula can work with any TMC and offer varied options, from hotels to economy carriers and rail networks. The flexibility of your platform will allow you to adapt to the conversion provider landscape and maximize savings.
Finance’s growing impact
The influence of finance will continue to grow, and CFOs will increasingly partner with security and IT groups to ensure that new technologies are deployed securely and effectively. This includes comparing investments in AI equipment for travel expense control with increased efficiency, ensuring compliance, and overall cost control.
Data integration and security
By 2025, finance will play a key role in integrating knowledge across purposes to eliminate silos and achieve greater power and security. As cybersecurity dangers increase, finance will collaborate with IT to improve infrastructure, minimize exposure, optimize pricing, and improve resiliency.
Sustainability
As travel volumes increase, organizations will face more pressure to meet sustainability regulations. Finance will help guide investments in technology solutions that prioritize compliance, such as tools for carbon tracking or incentives for sustainable travel.
Collaborating for growth
Finance leaders will work with HR, IT and engineering teams to identify opportunities for business expansion, process automation and innovation. This cross-functional collaboration will help ensure tech investments align with both financial and non-financial goals, such as ESG and talent recruitment initiatives.
Even if no forecast is guaranteed, the long term of the T