The keys to Business Travel in 2025: cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and user experience.

After years of AI buzz, 2025 will be the year of its implementation. This will allow organizations to plan how to remain competitive with new travel investments, while putting measures in place to protect data, security and the bottom line. SAP Concur experts have defined five trends for this year.

 

Higher investment in cybersecurity to prevent data breaches. Innovative solutions such as process automation and generative AI are expected to support industry growth. However, as digital estates increase, and companies incorporate new systems to streamline travel and expense processes, there are also certain risks associated with data breaches. This is why investment in technological innovation and security infrastructure will be a top priority in 2025, in order to avoid cybersecurity breaches that compromise companies' private information.

Back to the office puts pressure on budget control: Experts predict that 2025 will also be the year of the return to the office, which will also lead to an increase in the volume of business travel. Because of slowing inflation, companies will have the opportunity to extract more value from travel investments. However, executives remain cautious as pressure to squeeze more value out of travel budgets is expected to increase, ensuring that policies are applied consistently across the board;This ensures that policies are consistently applied as more travelers book travel and submit expenses, protecting against costly errors, fraud and policy violations.

Expense reports become exceptional reports:2025 will be the year when repetitive tasks, such as validating transactions for compliance, are increasingly automated, reducing the time spent by travel managers reviewing individual expense reports. Instead, they will be replaced by exceptional reports that only highlight deviations from the company's standard travel and expense policies. In addition, automations will also help travel managers perform audits in a much more streamlined manner, allowing them greater ability to inspect expenses, identify fraud and ensure that no error goes unchecked.

‘Sensible’ skepticism with AI:While 2024 promised AI-savvy companies a number of transformative benefits, in 2025 the technology’will be treated with a level of “sensible” skepticism and reflection. This skepticism will lead AI to be seen more as a helpful assistant for recommendations and identification of expense anomalies than as a comprehensive solution for booking travel or submitting expense reports. Proof of this can be seen in the 2024 SAP Concur Global Business Travel survey, which showed that only one in ten Spanish corporate travelers already use AI to make bookings more easily and in less time.

Growing demand for enhanced user experiences: With business travel on the rise, travelers' expectations will continue to grow. As a result, by 2025, demand for real-time updates on delays and anomalies is expected to increase. This will help address the effects of extreme weather events and geopolitical conflicts, scenarios that influence business travel decisions. With employee duty of care in the spotlight travelers expect greater support from their companies through expense and travel management systems.

For Joao Carvalho, João Carvalho, head of SAP Concur for Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa; “by 2025 we will see how business travel continues to be on the corporate map. Therefore, boosting travel booking tools with generative AI will bring added value and quality that will shape the future of business travel. What's more, AI assistants will offer personalized, history-based recommendations, bringing greater visibility into the industry's cost and carbon footprint.