In the increasingly complex world of post-pandemic business travel, some travel buyers are looking to chatbots to simplify processes and communicate directly with travelers.

Chatbot technology uses natural language processing, which relies on AI-powered models to accurately understand and respond. While big business for some time has embraced this tech, it has just started to make its way into managed travel programs.

“Post-Covid, there was a shortage of expertise and lots of questions about the rules, policy, expense allowance, duty of care, a whole plethora of things as business travelers re-familiarized themselves with all the necessary information to make a return to travel,” said Adam Kerr, CEO and founder of business travel booking and planning platform Tripism, which plans to launch an intuitive chat functionality in 2024.

“The chatbot was seen as a solution for some of the more straightforward questions, freeing up resources and agency time, and therefore cost,” he said, adding that some enterprise clients have built chatbots within their own organizations.

While some corporates have developed their own closed-loop systems, others are working with tech startups or piloting new integrations to explore different use cases.

Toyota North America is looking to expand the use of an existing chatbot, currently deployed to offer internal IT support, to help improve efficiencies around traveler communication, said travel services manager Rebecca Jeffries.

“Right now, we’re in the process of filling out a very long FAQ document to feed into [the chatbot], and we hope to go live by December or January,” she said.

The auto manufacturer’s virtual agent, a system known as Agent Ask, is integrated with Microsoft Sharepoint and accessible via Teams. Once deployed as part of the travel program, Jeffries hopes the bot will automate responses to many of the policy-related inquiries posted in her Ask Travel Services channel on Teams, which she said currently has 11,000 U.S. subscribers.

“We’ve noticed in the last year that the number of questions has dramatically increased, and it takes up a lot of our time,” she said. “We’re hoping to get out of the minutiae of answering the same questions over and over and redirect people to the resources that are already available, because they can answer their own questions.”

Jeffries envisions the chatbot will send personalized Teams notifications and follow-up emails to remind travelers to renew passports or soon-to-expire credit cards. She also hopes the tool will learn how to decipher between the types of inquiries and route customer service-related questions to her travel management company, which “will all be part of the AI learning,” she said.