How artificial intelligence creates added value in business travel management

A new, cross-application era has begun with SAP's own AI assistant Joule. Joule bundles data from all areas of the company and optimizes workflows - in business travel management, but also in other areas such as supply chain, procurement or human resources. The reciprocal integration of Joule and Microsoft Copilot announced by SAP at SAP Sapphire will further expand the scope of applications and increase productivity.

The AI potential for business travel

For CFOs, travel managers and HR managers, it is particularly important that artificial intelligence is integrated into business travel management. Worldwide, 51% of CFOs are already investing in AI technology1 to make business travel more efficient - a clear trend, as in 2023 the figure was just 15%. And travel managers also underline the relevance of AI in the latest Global Business Travel Survey: 70 percent2 of German travel managers would like AI support.

This is because business trips involve a lot of administrative work. Trips have to be booked and expenses submitted. Finance teams have to check them for accuracy, correct them if necessary and settle them as promptly as possible. There are many opportunities for artificial intelligence here, which can not only simplify processes for employees, but also generate added value.
The SAP Concur business travel management and travel expense solution is already improving processes through AI integration and relieving both travelers and teams in the back office. Integrated business travel management and intelligent interfaces enable users to carry out their booking and accounting process in one place. At the same time, companies can keep an eye on employee expenses at all times and thus manage travel budgets in an informed manner.

AI technology has been used in SAP Concur solutions for over ten years. Joule will soon mark the next step on the AI roadmap and gives an idea of where the journey will take us: In future, travel bookings and expense reports will almost take care of themselves. Administrative tasks will be completed with the help of AI, giving everyone involved more time for value-adding activities.

Avoid cost and receipt chaos

Whether it's a train ticket or accommodation costs: if employees want to be reimbursed for the costs of a business trip, they must provide proof in the form of an invoice or receipt. To avoid mountains of paper, companies can offer their employees digital solutions with intelligent AI algorithms for recording travel expenses. For example, they can take a photo of their receipt in a café or during their lunch break and use it to initiate data capture by the integrated artificial intelligence.

ExpenseIt from SAP Concur analyzes photographed receipts or PDFs with AI support and extracts relevant information. This includes information on the receipt (name and address of the invoicing party, details of the expense and invoice or receipt date) and also the expense type (receipt categorization). This automated data capture increases the reliability of the data, as the AI eliminates human errors such as typos or old and incorrectly submitted receipts. It also reduces administrative costs for finance and travel managers and the working time required to manually record expenses. ExpenseIt is continuously being developed and the accuracy of reading out different languages and tax-relevant information is improved by generative AI.

Generative AI optimizes business travel management even before the trip begins through automated cost estimation: the booker specifies the key data and parameters and the system uses GenAI to request realistic prices for the individual segments. Applicants therefore no longer have to research and calculate the amount themselves. The evaluation also helps companies to keep an eye on the available budget and use it optimally. All in the interests of the travel experience and cost efficiency.

Structuring expenses and detecting fraud

In addition to data capture, data integrity is crucial - unconsciously or even deliberately incorrect output data often leads to high costs. Manually checked receipts are rarely error-free and the check itself is often time-consuming. With the help of artificial intelligence, the content and context of receipts can be compared with the travel expense report and individual company guidelines in a fraction of the time. This ensures that receipt and accounting data match.

Concur Detect by Oversight also analyzes invoices specifically for incorrect data and identifies fraud patterns. This is difficult to do manually, as patterns such as regularly submitted statements below the auditing threshold or frequent weekend trips are hard to find. Automated analysis allows companies to focus on actual and recurring cases of fraud.
The extracted, analyzed and validated data is then automatically assigned to the appropriate spend categories by the AI algorithms. This makes it easier for finance teams to derive and implement cost-saving measures based on data trends.

Optimize global tax processes

Internal travel expense processes can be optimized in terms of susceptibility to errors and consistency. It is particularly difficult for internationally active companies to comply with global VAT regulations. Together with Blue dot, SAP Concur has therefore introduced Concur Tax Assurance by Blue dot. A dynamic platform that uses up-to-date tax knowledge to analyze transactions in order to comply with the tax regulations of different countries and regions.

Concur Benefits Assurance by Blue dot is also the tool for optimized tax compliance. Benefits Assurance is an innovative technology that detects hidden employee benefits subject to payroll tax in payroll statements. In combination, the solutions are able to overcome cross-border tax and compliance challenges and make expense management more efficient.

Relief through trustworthy artificial intelligence

As the world around us becomes increasingly complex, artificial intelligence offers many opportunities to reduce complexity. Algorithms can help to process large amounts of data efficiently and effectively. Complex sets of rules, such as international tax guidelines, can be checked reliably and quickly for each individual issue with minimal human interaction. Due to the learning ability that this technology brings with it, the need for human intervention in gray cases becomes less and less over time.

Next level with Joule

Artificial intelligence optimizes business travel management and enables companies to deploy their resources more predictably and strategically. Thanks to SAP's partnerships with the most trusted large-scale language models (LLMs), SAP Concur can build on its AI track record in travel booking and billing to further optimize this area for businesses. SAP's own AI copilot, Joule, together with Microsoft Copilot, will soon give SAP end users a further productivity boost.

Joule becomes the user interface for SAP applications, opening up new opportunities for business travel. Employees can find out with a simple query whether they are acting in accordance with guidelines, as Joule is fed with data from SAP Concur as well as individual company data. With the integration of Microsoft Copilot and the connection to applications such as Microsoft Teams or Outlook, Joule can also enter appointments directly into the Outlook calendar when booking a trip.

Joule is thus taking the next important step towards even more efficient business travel. Artificial intelligence should always be seen as a tool to make processes and people's lives easier. AI will continue to evolve in the future through constant further development and training for specific use cases.

concur.com