Using AI for travel planning can save time while boosting productivity and efficiency. Find out the top AI travel tools for business travel
Is your organization using AI for travel planning yet? By 2030, it’s expected that 70% of businesses will be using some form of AI technology. While artificial intelligence and machine learning have become indispensable in the finance and technology sectors, AI is equally useful when it comes to corporate travel planning and policy compliance. Business travel planners reap the benefits with real-time scheduling updates and bespoke booking suggestions.
The applications are diverse. Break down language barriers with AI translation tools, optimize travel itineraries with an efficiency-boosting AI travel planner, and reduce airfare costs with an AI flight booking tool. Below, we’ll discuss the potential benefits of AI in the travel industry, while outlining the top business travel tech solutions available today.
Business trips often require extensive research into a destination’s accommodation options and activities. Using AI for travel planning saves time, as AI-powered algorithms trawl through data to offer customized recommendations. These tools optimize the planning process by considering traveler preferences, past trips, and browsing history to offer only the most suitable suggestions. They’ll also automatically compare itinerary options with a company’s travel policy, streamlining travel request approvals.
AI travel planners provide personalized suggestions to help you build an itinerary. The benefits also include cost reduction and improved communication:
Predictive analytics tools work to find the best advance booking fares using dynamic pricing models and historic cost analysis.
Because AI works automatically behind the scenes with data-driven precision, it’s useful for a multitude of time-saving corporate travel tasks, including expense management. Expense tracking and reporting are onerous tasks when completed manually during and after each business trip, as you’ll need to retain each receipt. As a result, according to Booking.com for Business research, nearly half of corporate travelers expressed interest in using AI expense management tools.
Streamline and simplify your business travel planning, budgeting and compliance with the following AI travel tech solutions.
There’s no shortage of AI travel planning tools out there to help you optimize your business trip itinerary. Mindtrip takes traveler preferences, date ranges, and budget into account. Once you’ve input available business trip details for your team members, the app will create a day-by-day itinerary. Itineraries feature maps so you can see how far apart destinations are and plan a realistic schedule. At the same time, budget tracking tools ensure you stay on target.
This tool is particularly useful for group travel and collaboration, with shareable itineraries. When you’re planning a trip due to a team presentation, trade show or conference, each user can access the itinerary. Users can also make dynamic changes in real-time, ensuring that everyone is kept informed of scheduling updates.
Business travel admin often involves an element of event planning, whether travelers are presenting to international clients or in need of a casual gathering space to meet with colleagues. Groupize specializes in meetings management solutions for small businesses, and the company’s new Groupize Pro products uses AI for advanced venue information. The platform’s AI Concierge service delivers rapid, accurate suggestions to user queries.
While planning an upcoming business trip, you’ll be able to make sure that you have the most up-to-date details about potential venues, so you can successfully build business meetings into each traveler’s itinerary.
Traveling for business requires storing and submitting expense receipts. With automated AI expense management tools like Expensify, business travelers can save the time that would be spent on manual processing, while preventing human error that could delay payments. The software’s AI-powered auditing technology sifts through vast quantities of data to verify each transaction, ensuring accounting compliance.
Admins can monitor business travel expenses at a distance, as employees take photos and upload each business expense receipt. Expensify’s SmartScan tool will automatically capture all its data for fast, accurate submission in an expense report. Expensify also integrates with Booking.com for Business using Traxo, automatically uploading business travel receipts on the go.
Remove language barriers during business travel using AI translation tools like DeepL. Over 100,000 businesses and governments already use DeepL’s Language AI, which is trained on linguistic data according to the latest machine learning research. DeepL’s translations are up to three times more accurate than other AI translation apps, so your team will be better able to connect with global colleagues and customers.
The DeepL Voice tool is of particular use to employees in the field, with live, real-time voice translation capabilities. Simply download to each iOS or Android device and they’ll be able to manage one-on-one conversations in foreign languages using advanced AI technology.
Even with a well-written, comprehensive company travel policy, business travelers may experience confusion, reducing compliance and causing administrative delays. To meet these challenges, business travel specialists Altour have recently unveiled a new AI tool called AI Transform. This tool allows travel managers to create and upload custom video content using life-like, AI-generated avatars to encourage policy compliance.
For business travelers, it gives access to highly specific instructional videos for better engagement, retention, and personalized assistance. This also improves the chances of travel requests being approved upon first submission, saving time and frustration.
Today’s AI travel tech solutions can take over all aspects of trip planning. Whether you use ChatGPT or a dedicated AI travel planner tool, start by inputting your team’s destination, budget, and business trip objectives. The tool will then propose an itinerary that works for the full team with recommended activities and booking suggestions. These are based on real-time traveler data, price constraints and available accommodation.
H3: Is there an AI tool to make a travel itinerary?
Yes, AI tools can take care of the organizational details required to make a travel itinerary. The best AI virtual assistants provide suggestions based on your team’s preferences and browsing history. Corporate travel platforms like Booking.com for Business provide customized booking options that fit within the constraints of your company’s travel policy, optimizing the planning process and ensuring compliance.
Yes, translation is one of the primary uses of AI in business travel. In addition to enterprise-grade DeepL mentioned above, top AI translation tools for businesses include Google Translate and Microsoft Translator.
Google translates over 100 languages in real-time, using AI-driven automatic speech detection technology. If your team already uses Microsoft products, it’s worth considering Microsoft Translator for easy integration. This tool offers offline translation capabilities as well, which is handy when users are traveling in areas with poor reception.
Chatbots are frequently used by travel management platforms like Booking.com for Business. These use Machine Learning technology to provide real-time, data-driven responses to a user’s prompts. The chatbot scours through vast quantities of data to deliver cost-effective, helpful, and personalized recommendations.
For example, a travel chatbot could update you on a flight’s status and offer alternatives for cancellations, so you’ll be able to rebook a suitable route for your team and avoid costly delays.
AI travel tools are improving daily but may still require some fine-tuning on the user’s part. When using an AI virtual assistant, you’ll get better results by being highly specific with your business travel prompt.
For example, here are two prompts.
A: Please suggest a meeting space in Berlin.
B. Please suggest a meeting space in Berlin that’s suitable for a tourism industry event. There will be 300 attendees, with multimedia presentations during the day and an evening cocktail reception.
With the second prompt, the AI travel planner has the directions it needs to whittle through all the search results related to meeting spaces in Berlin. AI tools fare best with detailed instructions.
Business travel management solutions are increasingly using AI to power timesaving business travel tools. Yet before relying entirely on an AI virtual assistant for your company’s itineraries, there are a few factors to consider.
For travel admins, it’s important to always review AI-generated itineraries and fact-check results before proceeding with a booking.
AI’s impact on business travel is significant. With clever machine learning and predictive analytics tools available to optimize the logistics of each journey, you’ll have time freed to focus on the granular details.
It’s well worth integrating AI expense management tools alongside travel planning apps and corporate travel management solutions. With Booking.com for Business, business travel bookers benefit from recommendations in a convenient, intuitive platform. You’ll be able to reserve flights, car rentals, and accommodation from an all-in-one dashboard, all while benefiting from exclusive business rates.
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