SAP Concur has announced a spate of new capabilities, including new agents through SAP’s AI copilot Joule, additional virtual card capabilities and enhanced chat capabilities for Complete, its joint offering with American Express Global Business Travel.
The company revealed the product updates at its annual Fusion conference in New Orleans this week.
The new Joule agents include the Expense Automation Agent for employees, which creates expense reports for travellers based on context and user history, explained Christopher Juneau, SAP Concur’s SVP and head of product marketing. Users can review and add information to the reports if needed before submitting for approval.
A second new Joule agent acts as an auditor to review receipts and flag discrepancies before an employee submits a report, added Juneau. Both new agents are in SAP's Early Adopter Care programme and are set to be more widely available later this year.
SAP Concur also announced a new integration between Joule and Microsoft 365 Copilot, building on the "bi-directional integration" between the two platforms that was announced in 2024. With the new integration, users can now create and submit expense reports, book travel, check travel policy and upload receipts while remaining in Microsoft apps.
“Instead of switching systems, in and out of apps, employees can complete travel and expense tasks where they're already working with built-in guidance and compliance guardrails,” Juneau said.
SAP also announced an integration between the SAP Sales Cloud and Joule's Booking Agent, which Juneau said can streamline workflows for sales teams. For example, the agent can recognise details of a client meeting and present travel options relevant for that meeting.
SAP Concur has introduced a new AI rule creation tool as well, which helps administrators manage policy rules in both Concur Expense and Travel, as well as Complete. "It's especially suited for administrators who are new in their roles or don't have a strong tech background," said Juneau.
For the Complete offering, SAP Concur and Amex GBT have added a new integrated chat platform that includes a handoff to live travel counsellors when necessary.
“That allows travellers to get that answer in a variety of channels and access to humans if they need it or want it,” said Amex GBT chief product and strategy officer Evan Konwiser, who added that agents receive a summary of the chat when they step in for a smoother transition.
Complete has also launched a new specialised home page for travel managers that "brings together all the key tools - approvals, reporting and insights" to manage a programme, said Konwiser.
On the payments side, SAP Concur announced it has integrated American Express Virtual Cards into Concur Expense. That means joint Amex and Concur clients can create the virtual cards within Concur Expense for travel expenses as well as other business expenses. It is currently available to select joint US-based Concur and Amex customers and will be widely available to such customers in the third quarter, according to Concur.
SAP Concur is also partnering with Visa to provide real-time notification from Visa card swipes that create expenses in Concur Expense. The capability will be available through SAP Early Adopter Care in the third quarter.
Concur Travel president Charlie Sultan said Concur Travel will be expanding its available airline content in India during Q2 via online travel agency Cleartrip. This will include IndiGo and SpiceJet, plus new suppliers such as Akasa Air and Air India Express.
Sultan said the new Concur Travel is also now able to fully support guest bookings. “Guest profiles can be created very quickly and easily, without having to establish new profiles for recurring visitors each time,” he explained. "They can have an expiration date if people are being brought on for a limited period.”