GBTA recap: It’s time to change the corporate travel playbook

Coming off the floor at GBTA, one thing was clear: Corporate travel managers are looking forward, not back. The focus is on innovation — how we elevate the travel experience, cut out the busywork, and build true, transparent partnerships that balance business goals with what travelers actually need.

While the conference was buzzing, the real talk was happening off to the side between travel managers over coffee (or cocktails). Nobody was debating minor policy tweaks — we were talking about abandoning outdated playbooks entirely.

Here are a few ideas from GBTA that every travel manager can use to level up their program right now.

Win with simplification (and ditch the policy PDF)

Nobody reads a 30-page travel policy document. In fact, most travelers don’t even know where to find it! During my GBTA session on hotel fragmentation, we looked at why travelers constantly book out-of-bounds — usually because company tools make finding the right room way too hard. While air attachment sits at ~98%, hotel attachment has been stuck at 45–55% for decades.

Above: Panelists from the “Defining Fragmentation: Are Your Travelers Booking Your Negotiated Rates?” education session, left to right: Nina Marcello, senior director hotel content & adoption, Altour; Dee Swanson, principal strategic sourcing specialist, Medtronic; David Mollov, managing director, travel industry solutions, Emburse; and me

As we highlighted in our latest travel policy report, traditional travel policy is officially dead. Our research shows that 60% of travel managers are laser-focused on simplifying their programs.

The fix isn’t writing longer rule books. It’s moving from “Policy Author” to “Policy Architect” by building smart, dynamic guardrails directly into your booking platform.

Instead of overwhelming users or relying on rigid price caps that break during a busy city conference, modern platforms catalog, dedupe, and clean up inventory displays. They apply intelligent logic — like dynamic “Price to Beat” limits, country-level hotel baselines, and clear rate comparisons — that adjust automatically to real-time market conditions.

Make it easy for people to do the right thing in the app, and in most cases, they actually will.

Real partnerships rely on full transparency

Hidden fees, mysterious TMC charges, and silos between teams create unnecessary headaches. In our recent European travel managers report, two-thirds of travel managers admitted they regularly have to defend vendor fees to finance. That’s a tough spot to be in when you’re trying to prove ROI.

Caption: Zach McAuley, major account executive at Navan; Kathy Burdge, senior manager of global travel & expense at Adobe; and me at the awards ceremony

The best programs succeed because they build real, transparent partnerships internally and externally. Look at Kathy Burdge at Adobe, who won a Best Practitioner Award at the BTN Travel Manager of the Year Awards on Wednesday evening during GBTA. She teamed up with us at Navan to strip the friction out of travel — getting online booking adoption up to 94%, dropping flight costs through modern retailing (NDC), and enabling travelers to book a trip in under 6 minutes.

When tech providers, suppliers, and travel managers pull in the same direction with total visibility, everyone wins.

Transform the way you work — let AI be an enabler

Real AI in travel isn't about sci-fi novelties or basic chatbots — it’s about embedding intelligence into the back end to strip out the friction that drains everyone’s energy. Modern agentic AI gives travel managers their time back while making trips practically effortless for road warriors.

Above: If you stopped by Pioneer Court during GBTA, you couldn’t miss Navan’s giant brain installation with this message right on the platform: “Upgraded travel. Powered by AI.”

When 99% of travel approvals are rubber-stamped anyway, why spend hours clicking “approve”? Smart systems can green-light routine, in-policy trips instantly, flagging only the true exceptions for human review.

From expense reports that practically write themselves to AI agents that proactively handle late hotel check-ins and flight shifts, automation exists to clear away the noise. That leaves expert human support agents and travel managers free to focus on high-touch care and big-picture strategy when it matters most.

The bottom line

Corporate travel doesn’t have to be overwhelming or bogged down by paperwork. The tools to make travel easy, transparent, and smart are already here — it’s just a matter of ditching the old playbook.

Ready to see how Navan can simplify your corporate travel program, automate your expense reconciliation, and give hours back to you and your travelers? Schedule a demo with Navan today.