This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.
The pandemic changed the shape of corporate travel. Remote and hybrid structures became the norm, and corporations started jettisoning their office real estate as employees settled into distributed work around the world. But while global business travel spending is expected to reach an all-time high of $1.6 trillion in 2025, the sector hasn’t simply snapped back to its previous state.
In addition to client visits and conference attendance, corporations have also started leaning on group travel to facilitate connection and collaboration. Suddenly, small groups of 10-20 employees needed to meet for four days in New York or San Francisco. Entire distributed teams might come together periodically in Dallas or Atlanta. This trend represented a major shift, adding volume to the corporate travel sector.
At the recent Skift Global Forum, Tory Passons, senior vice president, head of TravelBank product and corporate payment partnerships for U.S. Bank, spoke about the benefits of unified travel ecosystems in this unique moment and how AI will empower human professionals to facilitate this new style of corporate travel.
Adding Human Context to the Travel Tech Ecosystem
While building connected ecosystems is a priority for virtually every travel sector, it’s particularly important in the corporate travel space. Uniting varied data sources in a single streamlined system creates a more frictionless experience for travelers and travel managers alike. “If you have all the right data, you can help people have a much better travel experience,” Passons said. “There’s a big push to live in a more frictionless travel society.”
Passons said that technology is the key for travel policies, expense management policies, and corporate card payments to all work together in conjunction with budget. The data from each policy segment also needs to be contextualized from a human perspective: Why is this traveler visiting this location at this time? With whom are they meeting, and what are they seeking to accomplish?
Visibility into these hard and soft data points empowers travel managers to track compliance and improve ROI. “If technology has all that data in one place, it can organize it for you and make life on the backend much better,” Passons said.
Human Compliance Depends on the Tech’s User Experience
“If you can get everyone in compliance, good things happen for the company,” Passons said. In addition to cost savings and better budget management, higher compliance unlocks increased negotiating power with travel suppliers. In turn, those vendors get more bookings because companies are directing travelers to book with those partners. The rising tide lifts all ships (or airlines and hotels, in this case).
“But you can’t get compliance without a good user experience,” Passons said. “People will break the rules if your user experience is bad.”
While business travelers do usually make an effort to follow travel policies, entropy threatens to derail even the best-laid plans. If a policy is confusing or a cheaper booking is available off-platform, people are likely to take those shortcuts. And as corporate policies evolve over time, the stress of keeping up with those constant changes can push travelers even further afield.
In that sense, reducing friction with a streamlined tech platform is one of the best ways to increase compliance. If a streamlined, unified travel platform is easy to use, then it’s easy for travelers to remain in compliance.
“Policy is just natural at that point in time,” Passons said. As a result, travel managers collect better and more complete data they can then use to improve their policies and negotiate better rates with suppliers. “It’s good for the whole ecosystem.”
AI Will Power Next-Level Service, But Not Without Human Agents
Although corporate travelers often rely on them, support staff have historically been stuck with tools that Passons called “archaic.” Travel managers and customer service agents must exhibit patience as they interact with frustrated or even frenzied travelers while using tech platforms that are fragmented at best and outdated at worst. It’s no surprise that the new era of AI tools is knocking on human agents’ doors.
But according to Passons, inviting in AI technology will result in collaboration, not replacement. AI can help bring those archaic systems into the modern age, empowering skilled professionals to get answers and solve problems faster and more easily. At the end of the day, that increased effectiveness is better for everyone, from the agent to the traveler to the corporate travel manager waiting back at the office.
“Travel is very personal,” Passons said. “When things go poorly, you need help from a human agent. AI and technology won’t get rid of them, it just makes them better at their jobs.”
In the future, Passons hopes that AI-powered efficiency will enable travel managers to more easily organize corporate trips from the ground up. If an annual retreat has always happened in San Francisco, for example, AI might recommend relocating to Nashville or Minneapolis to save on costs. Then while the trip is unfolding, AI can help human agents coordinate with suppliers ranging from airlines and hotels to specific meeting venues, restaurants, or experience vendors. In that way, Passons believes AI will realize the vision of the connected trip — consumer travel’s white whale — in the realm of corporate travel.
This content was created collaboratively by TravelBank and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.
