In a corporate travel management environment marked by growing complexity and rapid shifts in technology, travel managers are increasingly faced with questions around content fragmentation, data inconsistency and loss of control. They find themselves turning back to the fundamentals for guidance. Meanwhile, travel management companies must ensure complexity doesn’t get in the way of the traveler experience.
Both agree that even with technology driving the bus, the bottom line is the need for humans to remain in the loop.
The balancing act sounds like travel managers and TMCs are trying to build the airplane while it’s still in flight. Businesses don’t stop developing and travelers’ needs don’t stop changing to allow the industry to wait on technological developments.
“Expectations have shifted significantly, but more importantly, they are still evolving in real time,” said Corporate Travel Management global chief technology officer Joel Bailey. “AI is already reshaping what travelers expect from their experience, and we are only at the early stages of what AI will enable. The baseline is no longer just ease and speed. Travelers increasingly want interactions to feel personalized, responsive and intuitive. They want less effort required at each step.”
At the same time, Bailey continues, organizations need policy compliance, cost control, and duty of care support. “That creates a new standard,” he says. “Programs must deliver both simplicity and control, while also becoming more proactive in how they support the traveler.”
The challenge is to corral information and delivery mechanisms to ensure the travel experience remains exceptional and compliant. Still, the most important issue is systems interoperability.
The first step, according to Charlie Sultan, president of Concur Travel at SAP Concur, is to define what success looks like. “Whether the priority is cost control, travel experience, flexibility, compliance, integration or all of the above, these outcomes should guide every technology decision,” Sultan says.
“Most often, it’s not just about individual capabilities; it’s about whether your technology can deliver productivity across the entire travel and expense process, from planning through expensing and reporting. The real differentiator is having a unified data foundation. When systems are connected natively, organizations can adapt more easily, generate better insights and make more informed decisions especially as new technologies emerge that can improve outcomes. The real value in the future will come from ensuring a company’s systems can all talk to each other to leverage the full power and productivity gain.”
Jeremy Dyken, vice president of information technology at Fox World Travel agrees. “The best solutions focus on orchestration,” he says. “The ideal solution leverages platforms that unify content, standardize data and provide a single control layer for policy, payments and reporting. Security and data privacy are also non-negotiable, especially as AI enters the stack.”
As for how to choose arrows in the quiver, Dyken told Business Travel Executive, “We start with outcomes, not tools. For me, the question isn’t ‘What’s new?’ but rather ‘What friction are we trying to remove for travelers, agents and clients?’ From there, we evaluate technology against three lenses: Business impact (in cost, revenue, efficiency), traveler experience and operational scalability. Typically, we would favor modular, API-first platforms that allow us to evolve without ‘re-platforming’ every 18 to 24 months.”
A key question for travel managers is how ease of use impacts compliance. According to Bailey, CTM relies on customers to guide progress. “What we consistently hear from customers is a need to improve the traveler experience without losing control, performance visibility, and the flexibility to adapt as the business evolves,” he says.
“What’s changed is the recognition that these (seemingly conflicting) goals are connected. When the experience is intuitive and friction is reduced, it builds confidence and trust in the program. That, in turn, drives higher adoption and compliance, which creates a stronger foundation to deliver measurable value. The focus is not on one single outcome, but on creating a program that works better end to end,” Bailey explains.
Connecting the Dots
Despite the increasing complexity around technology decisions, the rapid changes haven’t led to changes in the fundamentals. “What is actually happening is AI and NDC are reshaping how content is accessed but also fragmenting information and adding complexity. AI then can help navigate the new complexity but still it is about the travel experience,” Bailey says.
“Organizations still need visibility, control, and a program that works in the real world, not just in theory,” he advises. “Future needs are rarely assessed on technology alone. Our evaluations always focus on both the technical evolution and business outcomes. Can you see what’s happening in real time? Can you adapt globally while operating locally? Can travelers move through their journey without friction?”
With questions like these as a starting point, technology assessments become the enabler, not the strategy. “AI plays a meaningful role here by interpreting content, not just surfacing it. It helps shape decisions during the booking and travel process, but it must be used in context and governance. It’s more about building a connected ecosystem that aligns to those outcomes, with the flexibility to develop or integrate emerging solutions into existing workflows and whether your solutions make sense of increasing complexity without creating more work for your travelers or your team. Programs are shifting from ‘set and control’ to ‘guide and adapt,’ helping travelers navigate complexity as they book.”
Dyken agrees, warning that AI and NDC are not the strategy. “They are enablers. NDC expands and fragments content, while AI helps make sense of the complexity we’re faced with. The real decision is whether a particular ecosystem can aggregate, normalize and present this content in a way that’s usable and policy compliant.”
Sultan breaks down the technology question into two main areas of concern – content and AI. “On content, NDC is looking at the situation too narrowly,” he cautions. “A technology solution should have a proven track record of making available all relevant content that an organization needs. This includes air via NDC or APIs; hotel content through marketplaces; rail, which includes the ability for international travelers to book across countries; or full car content that includes pick-up and delivery, and other functionality.”
With AI, he says, customers expect productivity gains and an enhanced experience, delivering travelers intuitive bookings and personalized options while driving stronger compliance, better visibility, and more reliable support around disruptions. “AI is about simplifying complexity and improving productivity for the traveler, travel manager, accounts payable and finance groups,” Sultan says.
Content fragmentation across systems puts travel managers in the unenviable position of dancing between multiple systems that aren’t functionally integrated. “There’s also concern around consistency, especially as new distribution models are adopted at different speeds,” Sultan observes. “The most effective solutions bring everything together, aggregating content connecting workflows and centralizing data. When combined, AI and a unified data foundation enable better real-time decision-making, stronger compliance, and more strategic program management.”
According to Dyken, integrating information into unified content platforms will be the solution now and for the foreseeable future. “Think: Systems that can present the best options across all sources, apply policy in real time and proactively assist travelers during disruptions. Equally important are tools that empower agents with full context including trip data, traveler preferences and predictive insights. Expectations on distribution within the US or Europe, for example, are going to be different,” he says.
“Generally speaking, though, engagement is moving from transactional booking to continuous interaction before, during and after the trip,” Dyken explains. “This requires platforms that can manage dynamic content and maintain engagement across channels, not just at the point of sale.”
Humans in the Loop
Technology has limitations, however, and nowhere in the value chain is the importance of the human element more evident than when things go wrong. “With disruptions, emergencies and complex itineraries, human expertise still matters,” Dyken notes. “We design for this by tightly integrating service teams with technology, ensuring agents are augmented by AI, not replaced by it. The goal is a seamless handoff between digital and human support. There are companies trying to eliminate the human portion, but time will tell just how far they can push in that direction and what the potential trade-offs will be.”
For Corporate Travel Management, Bailey says the goal is a system built through customer feedback. “That is always our top of mind,” he says. “Technology can process information, but it is not effective when judgment, nuance or context are required. In a global travel environment with hundreds of airlines and millions of hotel options, even the most advanced digital scenario cannot anticipate every scenario.”
When irregular operations, last-minute changes, and complex travel needs demand decision-making that goes beyond what technology alone can resolve, a frictionless digital experience must be matched with equally seamless human support, Bailey says. In such situations, human expertise becomes critically important.
“What’s changed is how these issues are being prioritized,” Bailey continues. “They are no longer just operational concerns. They directly impact how easy the program is to use and how much trust travelers and arrangers place in it. If the experience feels complex or disconnected, adoption drops along with compliance and program performance. Ultimately, the goal is not just better technology. It’s a travel experience that is intuitive, responsive, and easy to trust, for both the traveler and the business.”
Integrating & Orchestrating
The integration complexity grows as companies consolidate, which often means traveler experience takes second place to systems integration. Still, the move toward more integrated technology can drive standardization and improve efficiency.
“Done well,” Sultan maintains, “system integration enhances the traveler experience and does not detract from it. Having an integrated technology stack means not having to enter information in multiple systems and not having bespoke processes that don’t talk to each other. It’s easy to envision a world in the short term where system integration means a calendar entry for a meeting in a different city triggering the travel booking process with an understanding of the travel budget, automated approval request, followed by parameter-based approval, and instant booking of preferred providers, complete with e-receipts automatically itemized and ported to the expense system to be reconciled with the general ledger and paid out automatically.”
It’s a balance between reducing costs, improving the travel experience and enhancing flexibility. “It’s not a single objective,” Dyken explains. “We’re simultaneously driving cost efficiency, improving traveler experience and increasing flexibility. The real strategic goal is resilience: building a technology ecosystem that can adapt to changing content models, workforce dynamics and customer expectations without constant reinvention, which has the potential to be both costly and time-consuming. Done right, technology becomes a competitive differentiator – not just an operational necessity.”
Cost control, traveler experience, and flexibility are all interconnected, Sultan notes, and technology should support all three. “The goal is to use data and insights to make smarter decisions while creating a seamless experience for travelers,” he says. “At the same time, flexibility is becoming increasingly important. Travel plans change, distribution models evolve, and expectations continue to shift. Organizations need technology that can adapt to change, while still maintaining visibility, compliance, and control across the program.”
With travel management, the question is not human versus machine – it is both. Likewise, the final system must integrate all functions for a seamless experience for both travel and company.
