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The expense revolution
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(Image credit: Shutterstock)
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
For too long, managing business travel and expense (T&E) has been a source of friction, frustration, and inefficiency.
Travelers wrestle with outdated systems, and finance teams spend countless hours chasing receipts and correcting errors.
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Chief Executive Officer at Emburse.
A new wave of technology, powered by hyper-automation and sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI), has the potential to transform T&E from a necessary but seemingly unwelcome compliance function into a strategic driver of growth and operational excellence.
Indeed, data shows that businesses can achieve 67% faster expense processing times as a result of using AI-powered platforms. The opportunity is there, but the challenge now is for businesses to roll out these capabilities at scale to capitalize on their potential.
Empowering the business traveler: from reactive submission to in-the-moment action
The ambition when deploying these technologies is to empower the traveler to act in the moment. Whether it's scanning a coffee receipt or submitting a hotel charge, the tools must be right at their fingertips.
This way, instead of a dreaded backlog of expenses building up, it becomes possible to submit expenses right in the moment.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletterContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.This mobile-first, intuitive approach with AI embedded ensures faster, more accurate, and more compliant expense submissions, building employee goodwill instead of resentment.
This is a crucial first step in modernizing travel and expense management. By embedding conversational AI and Gen AI into these platforms, the system can learn from user behavior, compliance requirements, fraud control, and deliver real-time, intelligent insights.
Moving from transactional to predictive intelligence
The ambition today is not just better automation, but a new level of predictive intelligence that delivers accuracy, compliance, and trust by design. By learning from millions of transactions daily, our AI continually adapts to how organizations really operate.
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This transforms spend management from a reactive process into one that prevents errors, flags risks early, and ensures every payment and reimbursement is right the first time.
Accounting teams gain speed and accuracy, while audit and compliance leaders can see risks before they materialize. Accounts payable teams experience touchless invoice management, and finance leaders rely on real-time analytics to inform forecasting, control, and strategy.
At a time where many organizations are seeking to reduce expenditure on expenses in light of rising government costs, these intelligent insights can be invaluable.
The need for freedom and flexibility
These capabilities are redefining what financial autonomy looks like with an AI-powered, enterprise-grade platform that fits naturally into each customer’s ecosystem; no disconnected or “non–real-time” tools required. After all, finance teams can’t be truly efficient if they’re relying on third-party audit software.
This open, integrated approach gives organizations true freedom of choice, allowing them to work with the travel, expense, and technology partners that best align with their strategy, instead of being locked into closed systems.
Key capabilities bring that vision to life. Integrated itinerary management unites travel and expense in a single, intuitive mobile experience; combining bookings, submissions, and spend requests in one place helps eliminate the need for multiple apps or manual processes.
This makes it possible to guide business travelers to compliant choices and ensure pricing accuracy through continuous monitoring. Embedded controls and proactive guidance empower finance teams to manage compliance before spending occurs.
Finally, seamless integrations and freedom of choice connect travel, expense, and payables data into one intelligent ecosystem for complete visibility and control. This real-time visibility is the foundation of turning reactive expense reporting into proactive, predictive insight.
The strategic payoff
By removing friction and offering timely guidance, AI-embedded intelligence in expense technology makes it possible for every employee to make smarter spend choices with confidence.
For finance leaders, this means uncovering hidden cost savings, negotiating better supplier rates, increasing policy alignment, and reducing spend leakage.
Ultimately, AI tools transform expense data into actionable, predictive signals. Dated legacy systems simply cannot compete with this level of innovation and intelligence.
End-to-end travel data visibility and AI capabilities result in cleaner, more reliable data, giving finance and travel teams the confidence they need to act on accurate, comprehensive insight.
Because when innovation and strategy align, leaders can spend less time reacting and more time driving their business forward.
Check out the best billing and invoicing software.
This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro
TOPICS AI Marne MartinSocial Links NavigationChief Executive Officer at Emburse.
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