AI is reshaping travel management. Photo Credit: iStock/Thinkhubstudio
TMCs are fast adopting artificial intelligence (AI), with recent announcements from American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) and FCM Travel highlighting a growing focus on conversational interfaces, automation and data-driven decision-making.
Amex GBT has rolled out a series of AI-powered enhancements across its Complete, Egencia and Neo platforms, aimed at improving programme visibility, traveller experience and meetings management.
Among the updates is an AI-powered Travel Manager Dashboard for Egencia customers, which uses more than a petabyte of travel data to provide real-time programme insights, AI-generated summaries, performance indicators and proactive alerts.
The company has also introduced spend leakage reporting for Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT, enabling travel managers to identify travel booked outside managed programmes across business units, travel categories and suppliers.
For travellers, the Complete mobile app now offers integrated disruption management with real-time notifications, self-service itinerary changes, personalised recommendations and live chat support. New "Perks" functionality also applies negotiated corporate rates, loyalty benefits and supplier offers directly within the booking process.
Amex GBT has also expanded its Guest Travel & Expense (Guest T&E) platform for managing non-employee travel, including meetings and events. New capabilities include automated travel policy controls, event-specific booking workflows, guest booking management and compliance reporting. The platform is currently available in the US and UK, with Australia scheduled for rollout in the fourth quarter of 2026, followed by Singapore, Belgium, France and Germany.
Separately, the company recently introduced an Egencia AI connector for Claude, allowing travellers and enterprise AI agents to search, book and manage policy-compliant business travel. It has also expanded conversational AI capabilities into Google Chat for Egencia users and is piloting Microsoft Teams integration for Neo customers.
Meanwhile, FCM Travel has unveiled AI-powered conversational booking for its proprietary FCM Booking platform. Powered by the company's intelligence layer, Sam, the feature allows travellers to describe their travel requirements in natural language and receive recommendations tailored to company policy, traveller profiles, previous trips, loyalty status and preferred routes.
Each recommendation includes an explanation of why it has been suggested, helping travellers understand how itineraries align with travel policies and personal preferences.
Initially available through Microsoft Teams and Slack, the capability will also extend to AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini through Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing travellers to book without switching applications.
FCM said the intelligence underpinning conversational booking will also enhance reporting and proactive analytics, surfacing spend trends, policy compliance and disruption risks to support travel managers in decision-making.