Here's How AI Can Help Fix Business Travel. Eventually

Few things are more tedious for the business traveler than itemizing weeks worth of client dinners, drinks with vendors and rushed breakfasts. 

Mastercard thinks artificial intelligence will be able to help with the worst of it: AI can be used to assure spending falls within predetermined company guidelines, automatically itemize travel expenses and then submit those expenses to the appropriate approver on behalf of an employee. 

"This ultimately saves business travelers’ time, allowing them to replace hours spent sifting through and manually entering receipts with more strategic tasks," Chad Wallace, Mastercard’s global head of commercial solutions, said in a written interview. 

That’s just one example – or three if you break it down – of what’s expected. Mastercard found that nine in 10 travel decision-makers plan on investing in AI and machine learning to improve processes and personalize travel for employees.

"We’ve seen a proliferation of players across the industry le