Many travel buyers today are navigating two worlds: solving for day-to-day immediate operational needs, while recognising the ever-more strategic role that travel plays in business success. As the travel manager role becomes elevated to an orchestrator of multifaceted systems and processes, the ability to lean on specialist knowledge and support from your TMC has never mattered more.

Travel management continues to evolve at pace – including changing traveller and business expectations, AI adoption and broader disruption challenges. Priorities compete and there can be precious little time for the strategic work that drives value for the business.

Amex GBT Consulting’s recent Travel Program Futures Survey found 31% of travel managers report reactive firefighting consumes most of their time. Only 7% focus on strategic traveller experience and programme management, while 78% say balancing strategy with daily demands is “challenging” or “very challenging”.

This is where an embedded consulting partnership can help drive success. When your TMC embeds a consulting team within your organisation, consultants gain unique access to your data and deeper understanding of your entire travel ecosystem, seeing the full picture beyond just bookings and expenses. At the same time, they can free you from operational burden so you can focus on driving programme value and supporting your business objectives.

For example, when an Amex GBT client needed to replace its manual, error-prone hotel allocation process for hurricane and storm disruptions, the TMC built an automated solution to eliminate duplicate bookings, reduce unnecessary costs and introduce clear accountability.

A new workflow was introduced to bring multiple stakeholders into a single, accountable process, with real-time visibility and centralised information management, improving efficiency and ultimately resulting in annual savings of $456,000. The process became far more reliable and transparent, with clear ownership, real-time status tracking, and the elimination of duplicate bookings and reconciliation issues.

Custom-fit support can dramatically improve how you operate. Your TMC should be amplified by intelligence.
We combine AI-enabled data science with consulting expertise and insights drawn from billions of transactions. An example of this is our Air Contract Analysis tool.

Historically, contract interpretation consumed weeks for large programmes. We’ve completed proofs of concept and are now in final testing of 11 airline contract formats, with impressive first-pass results that fundamentally change the timeline. Contracts that once took weeks now take days.

In addition, this capability unlocks fare basis code-level Air Rate Audit accessibility for every client, not just those who source through Amex GBT Consulting.

Similarly, our AI-powered Air Monitor, Hotel Wish rate and Air Share shift models will deliver more accurate spend forecasts. Our Policy Analyzer benchmarks your policies against best practice and peer libraries.

Your TMC partnership is your competitive advantage. When supported by intelligent insights and deep expertise, it transforms operational burden into opportunity and data into decisions that drive real value.

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