Travel & Expense Management Software Revenue to Surpass $16 Billion Globally by 2027
A new study from Juniper Research has found that the total revenue generated by T&E (Travel & Expense) management software will reach $16 billion globally by 2027; up from $8.7 billion in 2022. Travel & Expense Management Software
Expense management, when done manually, is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. From manually printing off expense reports and attaching copies of receipts, waiting for manager approval to having the expense processed days later, manual expense management is a slow and notoriously inefficient process. Despite this, Juniper Research’s latest figures indicate that 38.7% of all businesses globally still use manual expense management processes.
It predicts that the risk of expense fraud will increase as hybrid working grows, with remote working offering the ideal environment for employees to submit fraudulent reports.
Expense Fraud Will Drive Growth Travel & Expense Management Software
The research anticipates that growing risks of employee expense fraud will drive demand for T&E management solutions. Manual T&E management practices are unable to detect expense fraud and are incapable of identifying all cases of fraudulent activity due to the volume of expense reports submitted.
In contrast, dedicated T&E management solutions are capable of detecting and resolving numerous varieties of expense fraud, such as duplicate claims, by leveraging AI (Artificial Intelligence) to detect new methods of fraud; saving businesses time and money. Given these benefits are often overlooked, Juniper Research recommends that vendors in the market prioritize the development of AI-based anti-expense fraud capabilities and demonstrate these benefits when marketing their solutions.
AI and Machine Learning
AI and ML have helped transform the T&M management software market. For travel management, AI and ML can be used to predict future bookings and travel spending by analyzing historical data; enabling businesses to set more accurate budgets in the future. Likewise, in the travel management space, AI and ML can be leveraged to ensure that future bookings align with the preferences of an individual employee,
considering prior bookings to determine the most appropriate destinations, travel times, modes of transport and more to ensure that business travel is as seamless and enjoyable as possible for the employee. AI assistants can also be used to enhance the travel management process, supporting employees attempting to make a booking as and when needed. Companies may also leverage ML to notify employees of flight delays or other travel disruptions.
In terms of expense management, the greatest implementation of AI and ML is the integration of OCR (Optical Character Recognition). This uses pattern recognition and image processing capabilities to capture data from receipts and automatically populate expense reports with the data. This speeds up the expense process for employees and eliminates the need to manage physical copies of receipts. AI and ML
can also be used to conduct automatic policy violation checks and provides alerts and notifications as necessary, based upon a predefined set of instructions and rules.
Remote Working Encourages Adoption
Additionally, following the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become increasingly commonplace. The report found that this has led to a rise in expense fraud, as less supervision and outdated manual T&E management processes enable employees to more readily submit fraudulent expense reports.
Research author Jordan Rookes explained: “Manual T&E management practices become inefficient and encourage expense fraud in remote working environments. With manual processes unfit for purpose, businesses will look to automated solutions to digitise the T&E management process; improving efficiency, and discouraging the submission of fraudulent expense reports, whilst improving fraud detection rates.”
Accordingly, vendors in the market must provide a streamlined solution that automates the creation of expense reports and reduces the administrative burden on employees who work remotely.
