Corporate Travel Is Changing Fast, Most Programs Aren’t Ready

By: Leigh-Ann Burroughs, Principal Advisor

It’s been an especially active period for business travel, with several developments signaling where the industry is headed next, across infrastructure, technology, payments, and AI.

Travel Tech Is Doubling Down on Connectivity
SAP Concur and Amex GBT partnered to form Complete.  This highlights a broader industry push toward deeper integrations and expanded content access. As platforms compete on experience and choice, the quality, and usability of integrations is becoming just as important as the technology itself.

Payments and Travel Are Converging
The agreement by Capital One to acquire Brex signals continued convergence between payments, expense, and travel ecosystems. This move underscores growing demand for tighter alignment between spend management, reporting, and travel program visibility.

AI Moves from Concept to Investment

SAP Concur’s AI tool Joule reflects how AI is shifting from experimentation to execution in corporate travel online booking platforms. The focus is no longer just on automation, but on improving decision-making, personalization, and operational efficiency across travel programs.

Big Picture Takeaway

As corporate travel continues to evolve across technology, payments, and data, organizations need more than awareness, they need alignment. Lyndon Group works with companies of all sizes to translate industry change into practical, scalable travel and expense strategies that actually work inside their environments.