With established corporate travel vendors investing in AI and forming strategic alliances, joined by AI-native travel start-ups, a user-experience priority is finally becoming reality as the industry embarks on building a future-ready tech ecosystem.
Complete – by SAP Concur and Amex GBT – a next-gen, AI-powered platform, now combines travel booking, expense management, and servicing into a single, seamless experience; while SkyLink, an AI-native corporate travel platform, described as a pocket-sized travel agent and acquired by Amadeus in February 2026, is set to accelerate the deployment of AI-driven conversational technology in travel, transforming how enterprises plan, book, and manage travel.
Panellists at The Changing Distribution Landscape – Building a Future-Ready Tech Stack at last week’s GBTA APAC conference, spoke enthusiastically about a better, more user-friendly experience and richer content.
Chon Raman, head of SAP Concur, APAC, assured buyers that “the next-gen travel and expense solution will reduce friction in booking travel, servicing, and visibility in the entire travel programme”.
Raman added: “With agentic AI, the travel assistance for travel changes becomes a unified AI chat… and with the Amex GBT and SAP Concur strategic alliance, which deeply integrates Egencia with Concur Expense, the time it takes to search and book will fall below three minutes.”
Becky Power, vice president and general manager, client management, Amex GBT, said travellers on the road are looking for one app, and this will be rolled out in waves in Asia-Pacific.
Speaking on the power of SkyLink, Atyab Bhatti, CEO and co-founder, claims a booking time of just “99 seconds”.
Chief architect, Cole Thienes, described Asia-Pacific and countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam as heavy AI adopters; and with nine out of 10 individuals using AI, SkyLink’s aim is to reduce “the surfaces” travellers interact with to create “a single plane of glass that is quick and easy to use”.
Bhatti continued: “SkyLink can absorb the complexity and is natural to the user.”
Moderator Alison Rogan, global head of travel and events, HSBC, and GBTA Board vice president, said buyers are looking for “an end-to-end solution, not silos”, and “want streamlined access to content and to be able to repurpose PAs to do other things”.
The session ended with eight, 90-second Venture Connect travel tech start-up pitches, where Travelin.Ai was the winner.
