Amex GBT and SAP Concur have formed an alliance to create Complete, which the companies call a “new next-gen travel and expense solution.” The tool includes booking, serving, expense, payments and marketplace in one “seamless experience.”

When available later this month, according to an announcement, Complete will offer:

• AI-powered user experience and personalization to drive better traveler experiences;

• Greater access and use of travel and expense data to improve policy compliance and spend management;

• Access to richer airline, hotel, ground and rail content and the next generation of modern retailing;

• One app and one view across online and offline for a consistent traveler experience serviceable across all channels;

• A single Amex GBT and SAP Concur team for seamless account management, support, and service;

• The ability to benefit from combined AI offerings — using insights from the extensive data sets and experience of Concur Travel and Expense and Amex GBT’s software, services and marketplace — that represent millions of trips and transactions to fine-tune experiences in near real time.

In addition, the partnership includes an integration of Concur Expense with Amex GBT’s Egencia for a combined travel and expense platform.

Fred Fredericks, general manager and chief product officer, SAP Concur, said the alliance “represents the future of travel and expense management.” With SAP Concur’s technology and expertise and Amex GBT’s marketplace, software and service plus the companies’ mutual AI capabilities, he said, “we plan to deliver a solution that helps make business travel not only easier, but smarter and more impactful for organizations everywhere.”

More integration, features and functionality will be announced as available in 2025, according to the announcement, with quarterly feature releases starting in 2026. Complete will be available for use by members of GBT Partner Solutions and Amex GBT’s other global partner networks.

Charlie Sultan, president, Concur Travel, told BTE that as the company transitioned customers from the legacy Concur to the new Concur, the process was slowed by the need to work with so many different TMCs that had so many disparate systems. He said, “We needed to plan with them, and we needed to test with them, and we needed to certify them and then we needed to convince them to move their customers.” And so, said Sultan, “we realized that customers were getting frustrated because they were seeing what we had available, but their TMCs weren’t necessarily moving as fast with them.”

The company realized, said Sultan, that to be able to move faster, it needed a partner to continue to support and innovate on the new Concur Travel platform. While SAP Concur is going to continue the existing system of TMC resellers and servicing TMCs, he said “we’re also changing the game to strengthen our position and our offerings to customers in combination with Amex GBT.” By building for the future by listening and talking to customers together, he said, “we’re going to be able to offer an even more comprehensive solution that delivers end to end value across travel, expense, payments, servicing and the rest of the SAP ecosystem as well.”

Evan Konwiser, chief product and strategy officer, Amex GBT, said travel managers have told the company that what they expect over the next few years is a better and more seamless user experience. Also, he said, ”they want to hear about it as a unified team, not a GBT team and an SAP Concur team, but a unified team that is here to deliver for them.”

Fredericks told BTE that the two companies have had a 20-year-long partnership. But, he added, “one of the things that makes this partnership so compelling is that Amex GBT is not just a travel management company, but also a true software company that knows how to build software.”

What Amex GBT also brings, said Fredericks, is a very comprehensive global travel marketplace with access to over 600 airlines and more than 2 million hotels. He said, “They know how to get content in this fragmented market.”

Sultan added, “As you really think about the future of AI and what’s going to power that, it’s going to be the kind integrated data source we are building.”