There’s never a shortage of challenges facing corporate travel practitioners, and 2026 will be no exception, according to two travel industry veterans who spoke during the December Business Travel Executive Town Hall broadcast on LinkedIn. Microsoft global travel outsourced lead Patrick O’Halleran, and Kevin O’Malley, co-founder of buyer advocacy organization New M.O., explored the changing supplier landscape and the evolving role of the travel manager in the year ahead.

Geopolitical uncertainty and economic volatility will continue to impact forecasting, budgeting, travel patterns and volumes in the year ahead. In addition, consolidation among travel management companies and the convergence of booking, payment and expense functions in integrated platforms are changing the make-up of the competitive set.

“As a travel buyer, if you’re going into the final year of your travel contract with the TMC, this is a scary time because you really are trying to understand what the landscape looks like and how you’re making decisions for the long term,” O’Halleran said. “Our Microsoft travel team is half the size it was pre-COVID, so we’re forced to do more with less, and the complication of so many different suppliers and consolidation and all those things coming into play have been a real challenge.”

The capabilities of a travel management company, online booking tool or global distribution system – and how those mesh with airline-specific distribution – vary depending on the combination, “and that’s where this continues to be complicated,” he said.

O’Halleran highlighted Microsoft’s fluctuating corporate travel volume, which was down by double-digit percentages in November after noticeable growth earlier in 2025. “As we get into the new calendar year, it’s difficult to understand what those volumes are going to be looking like,” he said. “It is going to be driven quarter by quarter on the financial performance of the company, and then other factors that are out in the marketplace as well.”

According to Kevin O’Malley, travel management professionals are “often frustrated and confused” by the “posturing” among market players. “In many ways, complexity in business travel is rising faster than capability,” O’Malley said. “Between consolidation, new entrants, NDC, payments, expense and AI,” he noted, “the common thread is that the ecosystem keeps adding layers, but buyers aren’t necessarily being given clearer tools or better visibility to manage them. The players in the ecosystem are trying, but the world is moving fast, and it gets harder and harder by the day to keep up.”

TMC’s Consolidate, New Models Emerge

Travel management company acquisitions reshaped the sector in 2025. The most notable transactions were American Express Global Business Travel purchasing CWT and Direct Travel snapping up ATPI. “Consolidation has not always been ideal for buyers,” O’Halleran said. “It limits competition. It typically stifles innovation. Going from three legacy megas to two represents a challenge.”

O’Malley predicted more consolidation, “and it’s not just going to be consolidation of TMCs,” he said. “It’s going to be strategic acquisitions or strategic partnerships that come into the marketplace.” He sees the potential for a “dealership model” in which TMCs partner closely with booking, payment, and/or expense platforms. The Amex GBT-SAP Concur alliance for the co-branded version of Concur Travel, called Complete and announced in October 2025, is one example.

“What if that doesn’t align with everything that you’re doing?” asked O’Halleran, whose company is a GBT customer. “If it does, then great. In our case, it doesn’t, and that complicates things a little bit more.”

Will BCD Travel, Corporate Travel Management and Flight Centre follow suit with their own partnerships or acquisitions? O’Malley sees that as a strong possibility, especially as non-legacy companies like Blockskye and Spotnana secure positions in the ecosystem. Where does that leave other competitors? If larger TMCs pair up with booking/payment/expense partners, do smaller and medium-sized TMCs look to join a dealership as a franchisee? If so, which one? O’Malley expected announcements in 2026 and 2027.

A variation is an all-in-one provider that offers booking technology, servicing and payment and/or expense functions, such as Navan and Perk (formerly TravelPerk).

Regardless of the model, artificial intelligence is opening new avenues for TMCs to improve service and make themselves more efficient. O’Malley called out after-hours services as an area ripe for further development.

“There’s a real opportunity to supplement and augment your staff with probably bots and agentic agents,” he said. “The AI outcomes matter more than the narrative. There is a lot happening all at once. It can feel overwhelming, but it’s also probably one of the most opportunity-rich moments in the travel industry I’ve seen.”

Considering advances by new entrants, airline distribution transformation, growing attention to payment and expense solutions, and AI’s emergence, “we’re seeing a real shift to potential deeper integration,” O’Malley said. “If you’re on the buy side, what gives you the most of what you want?”

O’Halleran welcomes the newer, tech-driven TMCs and underlying platform providers. “That represents opportunity for us,” he said. “From a traveler standpoint, and from a company standpoint, bringing travel and expense and payment closer together makes that whole process easier, but it has complications, given the relationships across the different parties.”

The Evolving Buyer Role

Beyond making sense of an evolving set of providers and their modernizing capabilities, travel management pros must maintain focus on cost control, traveler productivity and program compliance – for duty of care and leverage in supplier negotiations.

“The travel manager role used to sit on the edge of the organization, and today, it’s much closer to the center,” O’Malley said. “It touches finance, HR, IT, risk, security, well-being – the employee and talent side. It’s changed what’s expected of travel buyers.”

O’Halleran agreed. He also emphasized the need to coordinate with legal, especially in light of the US government’s current immigration and border security policies. In 2025, Microsoft implemented a “mobility pathway tool” for any traveler crossing any border worldwide. It includes a pre-trip assessment and ensures travelers have proper visas, passports and other essential documentation. “This has proven to be a godsend,” O’Halleran said.

Buyers also must embrace what’s new and become experts in helpful tech.  For example, O’Halleran has incorporated artificial intelligence into his daily workflows, of course using Microsoft Copilot. He uses it for calendarizing and summarizing activities, documents and presentations. He is exploring how travel service providers can make programs more efficient by using AI to handle e-mail requests, mid-office tasks and more.

But O’Halleran also continues to field questions he’s heard for years about why everyone can’t simply book on the Internet.

“I negotiated a new five-year TMC contract earlier this year,” he said. “At the same time I was asking for final sign-off from new senior leadership, I was explaining what a TMC even was.”

It takes a village to navigate all the challenges and opportunities. O’Halleran is part of a longstanding buyer benchmarking group that has engaged New M.O. to “talk about advocacy, and go out to the industry a little bit more than we have in the past.” He also joined a professional development organization for leaders to share best practices.

Visit businesstravelexecutive.com to listen to this complete LinkedIn Audio session and find details about the next BTE Town Hall.