Navan is targeting unmanaged business travelers with a new AI
travel assistant app, Navan Edge, built on Navan's data and infrastructure.
Navan Edge—free to any travelers, making it open to business
travelers whose companies are not on the Navan platform—lets travelers book
"hyper-personalized" trips via chat in the app, based on traveler
preferences, loyalty programs and itinerary parameters, according to Navan. The
app also will be able to manage disruptions, such as rebooking a seat, alerting
a hotel of a late arrival and moving a dinner reservation when a flight is
cancelled. Users have access to human support agents when necessary, according
to Navan.
As of its launch announcement on Monday, Edge is available
in the U.S. and is able to support only hotel bookings. Expansion to manage
flight bookings and restaurant reservations will "roll out soon,"
according to a Navan spokesperson.
Navan estimates the potential market of individual business
travelers at $56 billion, and Navan CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen said the
company is well-positioned to deliver a large language model tool for travel,
with its data from millions of bookings made by 10,000 companies.
"That conversational interface needs to operate on top
of unbelievably complex infrastructure connecting hundreds of suppliers, global
travel infrastructure that Navan spent a decade to perfect to an enterprise
scale," Cohen said in a statement. "Navan Edge is built to deliver
what business travelers value most: the confidence that their trip will match
their standards and specific needs, the ability to be productive on the go, and
the freedom to enjoy the journey."
The app joins a growing field of business-travel-focused
travel assistant technology offerings. FCM re-launched
SAM in August as a travel assistant but without a booking component. BizTrip.AI
launched
last summer and recently drew
a minority investment by Sabre Corp. Steve Singh's Madrona Venture Group is
competing with Otto the Agent, which opened
up to wider use last December after nine months of beta testing, offering
bookings and travel management with integrations from Spotnana and Booking.com.
Meanwhile, Amadeus last week acquired
AI corporate travel assistant SkyLink, with plans to "enhance and
extend" its capabilities and North American customer base.