Beyond Reports: The AI-Enabled Travel and Expense Maturity Model for Unlocking Business Intelligence

Why AI Travel and Expense Management Matters

Travel and expense (T&E) management is evolving from a manual back-office task into a strategic driver of business growth. Too often, T&E data sits fragmented across reports, spreadsheets, and card statements—limiting visibility and insight. Finance, travel, and other business leaders now have an opportunity to transform this data into a unified, intelligent asset that fuels smarter decisions and stronger compliance.

This IDC Spotlight, sponsored by SAP Concur, introduces a five-stage AI-enabled T&E maturity model that helps organisations move from basic automation to a fully cognitive, data-driven ecosystem.

5 Stages of AI-Enabled T&E Maturity Model

• Stage 1: Foundational Automation: moving from paper and manual processes to basic digital tools. The system captures receipts and expenses, but doesn’t do much with the data. Many steps are still manual, and reporting remains largely backward-looking.

• Stage 2: Enhanced Insights: transition from basic record-keeping to gain a more proactive and intelligent view of its spending. Use early AI to enhance T&E intelligence, offering basic support and providing valuable data-driven insights to leadership.

• Stage 3: Generative AI Powered: Utilise advanced AI to deliver intelligent insights for personalised user experiences. The system transforms passive data into dynamic, actionable insights.

• Stage 4: Agentic AI Driven: Enable autonomous decision-making with minimal human intervention. The system functions as a self-optimising engine that manages entire workflows, freeing up teams to focus on strategic work.

• Stage 5: The Cognitive Ecosystem: achieve full integration across the enterprise with continuous learning and adaptation.

By advancing through these stages, organisations can turn fragmented T&E data into a connected intelligence engine—driving better spend control, policy compliance, and growth.

Download the IDC Spotlight to discover how AI-powered travel and expense management can help finance, travel, and other business leaders modernise operations and unlock strategic value from every business trip and transaction.