SAP Concur has showcased a suite of new AI‑powered tools at the GBTA + VDR Europe Conference, designed to help organisations manage rising travel costs while improving compliance and customer experience.
Business travel in Europe is outpacing global growth, with air volumes up 4.4% and average fares rising 4.6% year‑on‑year. Yet SAP Concur’s latest survey reveals a persistent budget gap: 69% of travel managers say funding does not reflect the strategic importance of travel, while 81% of CFOs admit employees cannot travel as much as needed to perform effectively.
To address this, SAP Concur is introducing Joule Agents – intelligent assistants that anticipate needs and automate complex tasks. Key innovations include:
- Booking Agent – conversational trip planning aligned with company policy and real‑time spend estimates.
- Receipt Analysis Agent – automated expense detail completion and predictive categorisation.
- Meeting Location Planner Agent – smart optimisation of times and venues for attendees.
- Expense Report Validation Agent – guided submissions with accuracy checks and compliance clarity.
The Booking Agent is live now, with further rollouts continuing into 2026. SAP Concur also unveiled a fraud‑detection tool to identify AI‑generated receipts, and announced Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT, a co‑developed platform integrating booking, payments, servicing and expenses into a single experience.
Charlie Sultan, President of Concur Travel, said: “With more than a decade of embedded AI and the largest set of travel and expense data, we are uniquely positioned to uncover even more value for our customers.”
These innovations reflect SAP Concur’s vision of a future where travel and expenses “practically manage themselves.”
