Few expense management firms employed
machine learning before 2016, but booking tools like KDS using that type of
artificial intelligence for predictive booking have made it popular in
corporate managed travel. And last year, machine learning expanded within the
expense management side of the business.
In September, Expensify combined several AI capabilities—including
online customer support, its real-time pricing feature Price-to-Beat, and a
setup wizard—into a virtual assistant named Concierge. This followed Expensify's
launch of Realtime Expense Reports in August 2015 and the decision in January
2016 to make it the default setting. The tool automatically submits expenses
for users after they've scanned a receipt, and it can flag duplicate expenses
and automatically approve and reimburse those expenses that are ready for
submission.
In October, Deem acquired hotel technology provider Olset,
which aims to increase hotel attachment rates for travel management companies.
It collects data points from hotel websites, user reviews and other sources and
uses artificial intelligence to match hotel searches to each traveler's
preferences. Deem president and COO John Rizzo said the technology also could
also be used for expenses: The system could flag expenses and amounts that are
out-of-the-ordinary for a particular traveler or for Deem's entire traveler
pool. It also could learn to contextualize what spend is considered acceptable
in different cities and countries and allow a single expense, rather than an
entire report, to be withheld for reimbursement.
And in December, Coupa acquired U.K. data management and
analytics tool Spend360 to obtain its machine learning capabilities. With
Spend360, Coupa can compile and analyze spend outside its own platform using
machine learning rather than rules-based programs or actual people, a true
differentiator in the expense management market.
For years, people have promoted the value of Big
Data, but as companies collect copious amounts, the question has become: What
do I do with it? AI holds the key to analyzing not only your own data but also
to benchmarking against the industry.