Buyer-side artificial intelligence platform Clarasight has formed an innovation and education community called Corporate Travel AI Network. It brings together enterprise travel, procurement and finance leaders for peer-to-peer learning and to exchange benchmarks as the managed travel industry enters deeper into AI transformation.
The buyer-only group has more than 300 members and, according to Clarasight CEO Adam Braun, includes 25 companies in Business Travel News' Corporate Travel 100.
"Travel managers are being asked to take on increasingly complex responsibilities with fewer headcount," Braun said. "AI is accelerating that shift, and few travel leaders have an educational peer network built specifically for this moment. Travel managers kept asking how others in their same position are successfully navigating these new challenges, so we created a buyer-only peer community to answer that call."
CTAN is one of a growing number of peer-to-peer innovation groups that have popped up in the industry over the last 18 months. They generally have been buyer-only in nature as travel managers look to develop their own vision and exert influence separately from supplier technology roadmaps. Festive Road CEO Caroline Strachan has supported an initiative called Changemakers formed about a year ago. Similarly, Business Travel News launched its Technology Community in November 2024. How these groups distribute the talking points and outcomes raised within their workshops has been fragmented but indicates a deep need for guidance and leadership in an industry that is replatforming.
BTN's broader-based Tech Community, in workshopping their own programs, surfaces issues and challenges that BTN's editorial staff pursue outside of the group in industry reports. The Changemakers have distributed a handful of group-driven insights on LinkedIn, though insiders have told BTN they are formulating innovation frameworks. Clarasight's CTAN has yet to put forth specific frameworks or innovation documentation. How it will do so is still under consideration, according to Braun. For now, it is concentrating on AI education, upskilling and workshopping for travel managers as they forge AI strategies and roadmaps for their own programs.