The 7 T&E Trends We’re Following In 2025

What developments lie ahead in the world of travel and expense?

To get a sense of what the industry might expect in 2025, we analyzed data from the Navan booking platform and the results of a large-scale survey we conducted with Skift. The findings outlined in our guide, 7 T&E Trends That Will Define 2025, can help you get out in front of developments and take your T&E program to new heights.

Here are two of these trends.

NDC Extends Its Reach

The excitement around New Distribution Capability (NDC) is heating up. More airlines are realizing the benefits of having more control over their content. And more companies are realizing how a travel solution offering NDC-enabled connections can help lower program costs.

NDC adoption could also help boost compliance levels. It’s an important point, as compliance has been in decline since 2022, according to the Navan and Skift survey. And this year saw a particularly sharp increase in the number of managers who said less than half of their travelers comply with company policies.

In addition, more than one in five travelers in our survey — 22% — reported booking off-platform more than half the time. A couple of the reasons, according to both travelers and managers, are a lack of inventory and lower prices. NDC could help with both, by offering more choices and more price points.

In fact, NDC is already changing the game for many companies, with 87% of managers in our survey saying that NDC-enabled connections are helping them save money.

Finance Pushes on Automation

Another key finding from our survey: Both travelers and managers are frustrated by the amount of time it takes to submit and process expense reports. A full 40% of travelers said it takes an hour or more to file an expense report. And 63% of managers said they’re still using at least some manual processes to process those reports.

They’re quickly falling behind companies that have adopted fully automated solutions, and more businesses are waking up to this problem. There’s simply too much competition for employees to be wasting time on manual expense reports.

Navan has been out in front of both these trends. We’ve been laser-focused on NDC, with 17 NDC-enabled connections and growing. And automating the expense report process has always been a key feature of how Navan helps companies manage expenses.

The bottom line: Navan helps companies save time and money — and that’s a trend that will never go out of style.

See all seven trends in our guide, 7 T&E Trends That Will Define 2025.