In addition to three 2024 predictions for finance from SAP Concur executives, today we have two more from the company in the area of how cost-cutting measures will affect business travel as well as how corporate social responsibility (CSR), new distribution capability, and AI might change business travel.
Cost-cutting measures will create business travel tension
One of the major 2024 predictions for finance is how cost-cutting measures would creation friction between employees and employers.
According to Amy Padgett, Vice President, Travel Marketing Strategy, although budgets may increase this year, doing more with less in response to inflation will remain the organisational mantra of 2024 and a source of rising tension with employees.
“We’re already seeing friction between employees and employers regarding flexibility and hybrid work,” she said. “Increasing Gen Z workforce representation will also drive employers to adopt the latest technologies and treat sustainability as a top organisational priority to compete for young talent.
Adding to this strife, the majority of global business travelers (67%) are very willing to hit the road and most (92%) say the future of their career depends on it, she pointed out.
They also continue to see health and safety as the biggest threat to business travel, she said.
“As organizations increasingly explore cost-cutting measures, like requiring that employees stay in less expensive accommodations that could potentially be in unsafe areas, enthusiastic business travelers are likely to put the pressure on employers to better meet their needs and expectations,” Padgett predicted.
CSR, NDC and AI will be front and centre in travel
There would be a combination of costs and benefits from travel industry trends in 2024, said Charlie Sultan, President, Concur Travel.
For instance, larger corporate initiatives like improving sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion will keep carrying over to company travel programs, putting new, higher-purpose responsibilities on travel managers, procurement, HR, and accounting departments, he added.
In addition, the acceleration of new distribution capability (NDC) among airlines, global distribution systems (GDS), travel management companies (TMCs), and online booking tools (OBTs) will push the industry into a when, not if, mentality, he noted.
NDC, combined with reduced supplier payments to TMCs may create growing pains and put pressure on existing industry economic arrangements, he said.
TMCs will continue to look for more efficiencies and alternate sources of revenue, which may also lead to continued consolidation, he pointed out.
The hot buzz AI also has enormous potential to improve the employee and traveler experience, he observed.
This potential will outpace past megatrends like blockchain, which often felt like a solution looking for a problem.
Further into the future, there would be continued adoption of driverless cars end up translating to other forms of transportation, and the industry embracing concepts like a one-pilot cockpit, he predicted.
“As use cases for AI grow, companies that have fully integrated corporate platforms—not just TEI integration but also finance, procurement, HR, and other enterprise resource planning (ERP) functions—will realise the greatest gains from generative AI and large language models,” Sultan said.
