SAP Concur executives discuss several trends set to define business travel in 2024
In 2023, SAP Concur predicted that organisations would have to do more with less budget and fewer resources and expected that the year would also introduce greater integration and connection in workplace tools.
The year 2023 also brought exciting technological advancements to the market, accelerated the new distribution capability (NDC) transformation, and marked substantial progress in the return to travel (albeit at higher costs).
For the upcoming year, artificial intelligence (AI) is the connecting thread among SAP Concur executives’ predictions. Although SAP Concur solutions have had AI at their core for about a decade, increasing visibility inspired by generative AI in 2023 has brought these technologies to the forefront. AI is changing how all business is conducted, and travel, expense, and invoice (TEI) management is no exception.
Here for more trends set to define 2024, according to SAP Concur executives.
Virtual payments will simplify reimbursements
Christopher Juneau, head of market strategy
“We’ll see business digitalisation efforts go a level deeper – and become substantially more integrated – in 2024. Continued adoption of AI, automation, and virtual forms of payment will drive streamlined processes in TEI. Instead of using a company credit card, employees will be able to expand their use of virtual payments for all business expenses, including travel.
“In turn, we’ll start to see two types of transactions emerge: trusted and exceptions. Most transactions will use trusted payment methods, and AI will quickly validate them as compliant, enabling near-immediate reimbursement. Exceptions will trigger AI-driven, automated audits to ensure compliance. In both cases, payments will be issued faster with more ease, and employees will have more time to focus on what matters most to them and the organisation.”
Technology-and some budget flexibility-will boost confidence
Tom Lavin, chief controlling officer, marketing and solutions
“The theme of 2023 is doing more with less, and that will continue to be the case as economic uncertainty carries over into 2024. Although the outlook is improving, global developments including continued inflation, supply chain flux, and geopolitical unrest will have an impact on how businesses operate in the year ahead.
“Organisations should take a realistic approach to planning for 2024, build in some flexibility to course correct as needed, and lean into the benefits of emerging technologies. Embracing AI, automation, and data analysis will help finance teams bring more strategy to the organisational table and find a greater sense of confidence amid the uncertainty.
“And while we aren’t quite there yet, I expect that generative AI will have a very compelling use case in forecasting and budgeting. Finance teams spend significant time on financial planning. Soon, we may be able to ask generative AI to prepare a full budget based on available data from multiple sources, freeing up finance’s time to focus on quality control and decision-making instead of the busy work that goes into budget preparation.”
Predictive analytics for spend management will emerge
Tim Lebel, vice president and head of spend products
“Organisations today have access to a multitude of financial data, but they lack the resources to make sense of it easily and rapidly. Existing spend management tools offer dashboards that compile information in one place for an employee to analyse, which takes time and considerable skill.
“Building on the technological progress that we saw this year, AI – especially generative AI – will begin to change this in 2024, creating an organisational ‘back office’ where computers work together to run the show. We’ll start to see more predictive analytics tools emerge in the year ahead with the capability to analyse data and derive trends, insights, and solutions to inform, improve, and optimise business operations, in spend management and beyond.
“For example, instead of manually analysing the data to make informed guesses, someone in finance, travel, or operations could simply delegate that work to a computer. Using generative AI, the computer could then provide data-backed recommendations – factoring in patterns that a human may never even notice – like the ideal time to book a business trip or the optimal date for a team meeting to minimise travel costs, ensuring the company is using resources in the best way possible.”
Cost-cutting measures will create business travel tension
Amy Padgett, vice president, travel marketing strategy
“As organisations hammer out their business travel plans and policies for 2024, another year of budgetary caution will become a source of rising tension with employees. Although budgets may increase, doing more with less in response to inflation will remain the organisational mantra of 2024.
“We’re already seeing friction between employees and employers regarding flexibility and hybrid work. Increasing Gen Z workforce representation will also drive employers to adopt the latest technologies and treat sustainability as a top organisational priority to compete for young talent.
“Adding to this strife, the majority of global business travellers (67 per cent) are very willing to hit the road and most (92 per cent) say the future of their career depends on it. They also continue to see health and safety as the biggest threat to business travel. As organisations increasingly explore cost-cutting measures, like requiring that employees stay in less expensive accommodations that could potentially be in unsafe areas, enthusiastic business travellers are likely to put the pressure on employers to better meet their needs and expectations.”
Corporate Social Responsibility, NDC and AI will be front and centre in travel
Charlie Sultan, president, Concur Travel
“We’re going to see a combination of costs and benefits from travel industry trends in 2024. For instance, larger corporate initiatives like improving sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion will keep carrying over to company travel programmes, putting new, higher-purpose responsibilities on travel managers, procurement, HR, and accounting departments.
“Acceleration of NDC among airlines, global distribution systems, travel management companies (TMCs), and online booking tools will push the industry into a when, not if, mentality. NDC, combined with reduced supplier payments to TMCs may create growing pains and put pressure on existing industry economic arrangements. TMCs will continue to look for more efficiencies and alternate sources of revenue, which may also lead to continued consolidation.
“AI has enormous potential to improve the employee and traveller experience. This potential will outpace past megatrends like blockchain, which often felt like a solution looking for a problem. Further into the future, we also could see continued adoption of driverless cars end up translating to other forms of transportation, and the industry embracing concepts like a one-pilot cockpit.
“As use cases for AI grow, companies that have fully integrated corporate platforms – not just TEI integration but also finance, procurement, HR, and other enterprise resource planning (ERP) functions – will realise the greatest gains from generative AI and large language models.”
For more 2024 trends and predictions to watch, download SAP Concur’s Travel and Expense 2024 ebook here.
