In 2026, technological innovation, particularly agentic AI, will shape the business traveler experience, and the prioritization of business travel at the organizational level will continue to increase amid its increasingly essential role as a strategic investment, according to Suzanne Neufang, CEO of GBTA. These predictions, she said, draw on her experience leading GBTA, along with data recently published by the organization.
This year, said Neufang, technological innovation will shape how we travel —and manage travel — for work, as business travel will be increasingly intentional and outcome-driven. Companies and employees alike, she said, are designing trips that clearly adhere to the purpose and desired outcomes of meeting in person, while ensuring every moment spent in the air or on the road delivers value.
These trends, said Neufang, are reflected in GBTA’s global traveler research, which shows that business travelers continue to view travel as essential to achieving their goals. But they’re also planning differently: combining different priorities into a single itinerary, extending trips when it makes sense, adding a leisure or personal component when they can and ultimately structuring their time on the ground to be as productive and fulfilling as possible.
This is where the promise of intelligent, agentic AI becomes transformative, according to Neufang. AI can help travelers plan, book and manage trips more seamlessly, ensuring each decision or disruption response — from air and hotel to ground transport — aligns with company policy, personal preferences and real-time availability. Imagine a single conversational interaction that handles all of this, said Neufang, adding, “that’s not the future.”
Technology won’t replace the human experience of business travel, said Neufang. It will make that experience smarter, more intuitive and more aligned with what both travelers and companies need to succeed.
What’s evolving in 2026 is the respect for and realization of the need for business travel, according to Neufang. Organizations that in 2020 thought the need had evaporated to ever meet again in person (for internal meetings, for example) are realizing five years later that culture, employee engagement and overall success lie in people getting together at all levels to define, discuss and deliver on objectives.
GBTA, said Neufang, is seeing trips increasingly anchored to clear business objectives, supported by smarter, policy‑aligned booking decisions and well-defined agendas that reflect modern ways of working.
GBTA’s annual Business Travel Index Outlook underscores this shift, said Neufang. Global business travel spending is projected to reach $1.69 trillion in 2026, an 8.1% year‑over‑year increase. This growth, she said, signals not just the resilience of business travel, but its increasingly essential role as a strategic investment — one where return on investment, not trip volume, is becoming the true measure of success.
