Boosted by its completed acquisition of CWT, American Express Global Business Travel reported its revenue in the fourth quarter increased 34 percent year over year to $792 million, as CEO Paul Abbott said the travel management company has reached an "exciting inflection point" in its AI strategy.
That revenue growth included a 36 percent increase in travel revenue year over year, and total transaction value was up 45 percent for the quarter, the first full quarter since the mega-merger of Amex GBT and CWTclosed. Revenues from product and professional services increased 27 percent in the fourth quarter.
Without the impact of CWT, Amex GBT's revenue increased 8 percent year over year in the fourth quarter, with in an increase in business travel demand and share gains also contributing to the increase, the company said.
Amex GBT executives focused heavily on the TMC's AI strategy in its earnings call on Monday, with Abbott noting that "we have proven that automation is a tailwind for a business, a tailwind that is being accelerated by AI." During the past five years, Amex GBT's digital transactions have grown from 60 percent to 83 percent of total transactions, and AI will further power that trend, he said.
One application will be Egencia AI, which Amex GBT plans to launch in April, Amex GBT chief product and strategy officer Evan Konwiser said. That will enable travelers to book and manage travel using natural-language inquiries and following policies and traveler preferences, he said.
"Already on Egencia, we have an average booking time of under three minutes, which is expected to go down even more with these new tools, as AI agents complete more of the workload," Konwiser said. "In short order, this will be available in a multitude of channels: the web, Egencia Mobile as well as the major enterprise collaboration tools that most of our customers are using today."
He added that similar offerings are underway for both Amex GBT's Neo booking tool and Complete, the integrated offering with SAP Concur that the companies announced last year. With Complete, Konwiser said the rollout plan began in the fourth quarter, with plans to have between 90 percent to 95 percent of joint customers on Complete this year.
Using AI to increase live agent productivity also will be a focus, he said.
"Human agents will interact with fewer transactions over time," Konwiser said. "But when they do, it will be critical to revenue retention and growth. Even the savviest digital traveler cannot predict when any given trip may require some human help."
For this year, Amex GBT projects its revenue will increase between 19 percent and 21 percent year over year to the range of $3.2 billion to $3.3 billion, Amex GBT CFO Karen Williams said. She noted those projects do not take into consideration a prolonged conflict in the Middle East, as the region represents about 5 percent of Amex GBT's revenue.
"Over the last week, we have seen an impact to volumes in the Middle East," Abbott said. "Initially for us, that impact creates more demand, because we have a lot of customers that are disrupted, a lot of changes and cancellations. Depending on how long the situation lasts, we are going to see some impact to forward bookings in the region."
For the fourth quarter, Amex GBT reported a net income of $83 million, compared with a $14 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2025. For the full year, Amex GBT's net income was $111 million, compared with a $134 million loss in 2024.
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