Business travelers are more willing to allow agentic artificial intelligence (AI) to handle logistics than to handle client-related planning.
A new report from travel and spend management platform Engine found that 86% of business travelers would let AI handle "routine travel arrangements," such as booking a flight or hotel, and 82% would let it submit expenses, which it noted as "no great surprise."
"It's the most archaic system: matching the receipts, classifying the expenses, identifying the anomalies. I don't want to take a picture of my expenses or think, oops, I forgot I got this glass of wine and now have to take it off the claim," said Richie Karaburun, clinical associate professor of hospitality and tourism at New York University, in the report.
However, they're less willing to let AI take the lead to take on client-related tasks, with 53% saying that would prefer a human to plan a client trip or dinner.
"The best candidates for decisions that an AI agent can make without asking a traveler first are those that are high confidence, those that are reversible and those that are consistent with preferences and company rules," said Adam Braun, CEO of Clarasight, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2027.
And while 76% of respondents said they would be comfortable letting AI decide whether a trip was worth taking, that's a potential blind spot for AI, according to Karaburun.
"AI doesn't understand the importance of face-to-face meetings: the value of attending a trade show or meeting your customers in London or Los Angeles," he said.
Additionally, 77% of travel managers who have measured AI's impact said visibility and control over travel have increased and 71% said compliance has improved. However, 60% also said travel costs have gone up since they started using the technology, and 60% said they're spending more time on planning and booking travel and filing expenses.
The Engine report included responses from 1,000 U.S. business travelers gathered between Sept. 11 and Oct. 23.
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