It's a new era for business, which means a new era for business travel. And with today's climate in which every dollar of working capital counts, managing travel spending has received renewed attention.
Managing travel expenses has long been a complex and time-consuming task for both employees and company finance departments. But it doesn't have to be that way.
PYMNTS spoke with: Edwin Poot and Jonathan Voare Global Chief Technology Officer and Head of Offerings and Partnerships, respectively. threadto get their thoughts on how recent innovations are transforming the way businesses handle travel spend.
Traditional methods involving manual data entry and paper receipts are being replaced with digital solutions that can automatically capture and categorize expenses. This not only reduces redemption times, but also minimizes the risk of human error, ensures greater accuracy, and enables real-time expense tracking and management.
“Like other technology companies, we are at the forefront of leveraging technology and are leveraging more solutions such as automated expense filing and automated receipt scanning and classification,” explains Poot, adding that mobile-centric Despite the rise of tools, he said: Easily scanning and categorizing receipts leaves certain compliance and cost control challenges.
Vo emphasized that while enterprise solutions are evolving, they often lag behind consumer-centric solutions. Despite progress, many employees still rely on personal tools for their travel needs, demonstrating the gap between corporate and consumer experiences.
“We find ourselves using technology more and more, but the experience remains disparate and unintegrated,” Vo says.
By centralizing all travel-related data in one place, businesses can better analyze travel spend, negotiate with vendors, and ensure compliance with travel policies. It's not here yet, but it's a future built on partnership and innovation.
Changing the landscape of corporate travel
At the forefront of this transformation is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into travel management systems. These technologies not only automate the entire expense reporting process, but also provide predictive analytics that allow businesses to make more informed decisions about travel policies and spending.
“Today, with the introduction of AI, we are able to automate much more than before, not to mention the anomaly detection aspect and predictability,” Poot explains, adding that hybrid and remote work are reducing travel costs. It has become more complicated, he added. “There's a huge gap between what's easy for me as a user and what's easy for the company to use.”
He emphasized the importance of strategic partnerships between ecosystem players and expense management providers to help streamline and unify travel spend management.
The ideal expense management experience
“There are several key needs. One is clearly ease of data entry and reconciliation, and we see scope for innovation, such as companies leveraging Thredd's capabilities to replace checks with cross-border virtual cards. ”Vo said.
However, one of the “key challenges” is the fact that many incumbents are still using legacy infrastructure and traditional rails for payments.
“Card rails have a lot of great things, but they try to force messages into the card message structure rather than using a separate data API process,” says Vo. “Essentially, there are a lot of technologies that exist now that enable a more optimized experience that didn’t exist 20 years ago.”
Looking ahead, Poot and Vo highlighted the role of AI and tokenization in driving innovation. Poot envisioned a future where payments would become invisible and seamlessly integrated into everyday experiences. Vo echoed this vision, highlighting the potential of AI to streamline approval processes and strengthen compliance.
However, both Thredd executives acknowledged the regulatory challenges associated with these advances and emphasized the importance of working with regulators to ensure compliance while driving innovation.
