American Express and Microsoft hope to further simplify the process of filing business travel expenses with a tool that uses artificial intelligence to show users which purchases are approved or rejected.
When an employee traveling on business swipes an Amex corporate card, they'll receive a text prompting them to upload a smartphone image of the receipt. An AI-powered decision engine will display a green code if it's approved, a yellow code indicating it needs approval or a red code indicating it's not recommended for approval, according to a press release Thursday.
Purchases and other necessary details will then flow into the employer's expense-management system to automatically generate an expense report, with machine learning applied to recognize patterns and gradually lower error rates and the need to escalate decisions to managers, the release said.
The tool, using Microsoft cloud technology, is the latest innovation in a series of expense-management systems that use machine learning and AI to replace manual expense processing with
Amex and Microsoft plan to pilot the system this year with Microsoft employees by integrating it into the tech firm's internal expense-management system. Their goal is to eventually roll it out to other Amex corporate card customers who may integrate the offering into their expense-management platforms, the companies said in the release.
Amex's research suggests everyone hates filing expense reports, but companies have an increased need for control and compliance with all expenses, according to Gunther Bright, Amex's executive vice president for global commercial services.
"Imagine a future where the majority of your expenses are 'auto-submitted' and 'auto-approved,' requiring no manual intervention and adhering to your companies' policies and spend limits," Bright said in the release.
Data from a recent American Express Expense Management survey suggested that due to the frustrations of manual expenses, 40% of travelers would rather have a performance review, a weekly meeting on Monday at 8 a.m. or have their flight delayed by an hour than have to complete their expense reports.
Seventy-three percent of business travelers said it would be less stressful to travel for work if managing expenses were less of a hassle, and more than half of survey respondents said gathering and keeping track of business-travel receipts is a common pain point.
Amex conducted the online survey with Morning Consult Dec. 16-Dec. 20, 2022, among a sample of 1,000 business travelers and 300 business travel expense-processors at corporations.
"We look forward to collaborating with American Express to simplify expense management and deliver intelligent digital capabilities to improve the lives of business travelers and employees," said
