Business travelers and business travel decision-makers are overwhelmingly comfortable in letting AI agents manage their travel and expense processes, according to American Express' Trendex report, focused on business travel trends and released on Tuesday.
The survey—based on responses from 1,006 US business travelers and 510 business travel decision-makers from companies of at least 50 employees, fielded from May 12 through May 20—showed that 80 percent of business travelers and 81 percent of decision-makers were open to letting AI agents manage the full process, from research to expense reporting. Decision-makers stopped short of full autonomy, however, with 90 percent saying it was very important to be able to review, approve and change AI recommendations, according to the survey.
Business traveler use of AI tools is on the rise as well, with 32 percent saying they have used AI in the business travel process, compared with 18 percent in last year's survey, according to Amex.
The survey also indicated that business travelers are using events—including sporting events, concerts and cultural events—in business travel, with 82 percent of business travelers saying such events can increase the chance of a business win when meeting with a client or prospect. A similar percentage said those events were a more creative approach than the traditional business dinner.
"That's on the back of business travel being strategic in nature to drive business outcomes and growth," said Fernando Iraola, Amex' EVP and general manager for global and large U.S. enterprise business. "Delivering those memorable experiences to customers really drives strengthening of relationships, creating trust and driving business outcomes."
In addition, the survey indicated that disconnected tools across travel and expense are causing a significant time cost for companies. Finance teams average 15 hours per month to manually update and reconcile travel data, and about half of business travelers surveyed said they spend at least an hour on manual tasks per trip.
"There's the obvious cost [of business travel]—the airfare, the hotel, incidentals—but then there is the hidden cost of managing a fragmented ecosystem," Iraola said. "That has to do with processing efficiencies, potential manual errors, the time to get the right data and to be able to make informed decisions and allocate resources to where the opportunities are."