Many companies are working to make their business travel services hyper-personalized, similar to the consumer experiences we have all become accustomed to. However, most leaders assume this ambition is too far out of reach.
With AI and machine learning, not only is it possible to create consumerized travel experiences, it’s also more financially efficient. From creating more convenient pre-trip planning to streamlining travel expenses, organizations that embrace AI and machine learning-driven tools save time, improve employee experience, and promptly reimburse expenses.
The question is which use cases organizations will embrace — and how quickly they can do it.
How can AI address current industry pain points?
1. Pre-trip planning
Planning personal travel has never been easier: with multiple platforms to search for the best deals, many consumers actively enjoy planning trips, exploring add-ons, and booking travel. The problem is this creates an expectation that business travel is equally pleasurable, but only some organizations can match this level of personalization or convenience.
As a result, many employees bypass their organization's booking tools, making it harder to control costs, ensure compliance, and verify expenses. But with AI and machine learning, many organizations are solving this problem.
How? By making their in-house platforms match the level of responsiveness and quality of consumer travel providers. AI can use historical data, individual preferences, and company policy to serve up travel options that are hyper-relevant to individual employees’ needs. This will ensure employees only book options the company covers, helping them make informed, compliant decisions.
With an easy-to-use, consumerized experience, employees are more inclined to use your platform and follow policy — helping finance teams keep on top of spending.
2. Mid-trip disruptions
We all know that travel isn’t always smooth, but disruptions can be uniquely problematic for business trips. From making crucial appointments to regaining vital hours of productivity, handling disruptions more effectively substantially impacts your business.
AI and machine learning can minimize the impact of disruptions in two ways. First, through automatic triage that proactively assesses the urgency of a particular problem; second, through accelerated support, where chatbots help employees get through to a human being faster and provide the support personnel with all of the relevant information to solve the problem fast.
The right system will also be able to accelerate the resolution by offering alternative routes, factoring in key variables such as the probability that other flights will be disrupted and the extra costs incurred by each remediation option.
3. Post-trip expenses
Organizations' most common travel-related challenge is ensuring travelers make efficient, accurate post-trip expense claims. One audience survey during the GBTA convention found that nearly two-thirds of organizations are most excited about how AI and machine learning will impact the post-trip experience.
There is a reason AI has been termed the “expense report killer”: with the right solution, organizations can dramatically streamline and improve the entire post-trip reconciliation process. They will do so through a so-called “decision engine,” which helps employees understand exactly what is required to remain compliant and allows them to file claims faster.
AI can then process a range of data about the specific trip, alongside your policy documents, to fast-track the reconciliation process and guide employees’ attention. Many claims can be auto-approved and run straight through the travel provider, while others will require more information, and the system will automatically flag these.
As a result, claims will be filed in a fraction of the usual time, and the employee experience will be considerably smoother. Our early findings suggest up to 90% of expenses could be automatically processed.
4. Future efficiency
Manual planning and booking take up valuable time for travel managers that could be spent on more strategic tasks like vendor negotiations. But with AI, much of this process can be automated. Organizations can create a repeatable process for regular trips with built-in compliance and cost controls. This will help your travel booking system become more efficient and effective.
3 ways organizations can accelerate AI-driven results
1. Streamline policies
The first step is to assess your travel expense policies and processes: what can be removed or replaced? How can you simplify the process to ensure that AI does not add further complexity but improves efficiency?
AI can support this process, as Stearns County learned. As a government agency, their reimbursement policies were highly complex, but with Emburse, they could configure rules to automatically enforce compliance - and cut report processing time in half.
2. Update your knowledge base
Your AI solutions will be trained on your knowledge bases, such as policy documents, databases, and FAQs. Any out-of-date or inaccurate information will wreak havoc within the system, leading to poor decisions and false content. It is crucial to review each of them with a fine-toothed comb to ensure they are correct and simplify the information wherever possible.
3. Ensure data is available
Data must be accessible to train your AI system, ensuring your various systems can share data legally and safely. Many organizations will benefit from centralizing their data to make it easier to view and clean.
U.S. law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson discovered the value of this process firsthand. By centralizing invoice and expense management data, they dramatically increased visibility across the organization and reduced invoice processing time by 90%.
The road to AI adoption starts here
With over 50% of organizations expecting to spend more than $1 billion annually on business travel by 2025, AI's process efficiency and employee experience improvements have never been more timely. But how will you ensure your organization gets access to the most impactful and robust products?
As a leader in the space, Emburse has helped organizations like yours improve employee satisfaction while saving travel managers time through AI tools. Learn how our collaboration with Microsoft helped them harness the power of automation to transform business travel for their teams.