SAP Concur Delivers Joule, American Express Integration at Fusion 2025

At SAP Concur Fusion 2025 today, we are bringing together customers and partners to explore how SAP Concur delivers AI, and greater visibility, to travel and expense management. At the event, we’re debuting new product innovations and strategic partnerships that harness AI, enhance visibility, automate tasks, and drive compliance—unlocking new efficiencies, spend insights, and improved employee experiences.

SAP Concur Debuts Joule with Concur Travel and Expense

SAP is transforming the way businesses run with Joule, its generative AI copilot. Now, this evolution will extend to business travel and expense management. SAP is embedding Joule in SAP Concur solutions, bringing the portfolio one step closer toward a fully automated travel and expense management process. In Concur Expense, Joule helps to ensure that expense reports are ready for submission with minimal effort. For example, Joule can assemble a timeline view of expenses, review for mistakes or missing expenses, and make recommendations for how best to complete the expense report. Additionally, Joule can answer employees’ questions so they no longer have to search through Concur Expense or the SAP Help portal, resulting in fewer support cases and improved efficiency for both employees and administrators. Joule with Concur Expense is expected to be generally available in the second quarter 2025.

SAP Concur also will embed Joule in Concur Travel initially to help with planning locations for offsite meetings. Joule can provide meeting location recommendations and high-level flight and hotel cost estimates based on meeting attendees’ origination points. Once the meeting site and hotel options are selected, Joule will create an email template to send to team members with a link to book directly in Concur. Joule with Concur Travel is available now  in the SAP Early Adopter Care program with general availability expected later this year.

Automating Expense Management in Concur Expense

SAP Concur and American Express (Amex) are expanding their partnership to simplify expense management for shared customers. One-third of SAP Concur customers use the Amex corporate card to capture expense transactions. To streamline the end-to-end experience, SAP Concur and Amex are launching a real-time authorization data capability whereby American Express Corporate Card purchases automatically generate and categorize expenses, starting with meal transactions, in Concur Expense at the time of spend. This integration will include real time mobile notifications via the Concur mobile app that alerts the employee with expense policy reminders in the moment to help drive policy adherence and minimize manual effort.

The most common type of expense submitted within Concur Expense is meals. In fact, a quarter of all expenses are meals, which is why the capability will first be available for meal expenses. For example, when users purchase lunch with their Amex Corporate Card, an expense entry is automatically created and the user can be notified if additional information is required, such as capturing the receipt image or adding attendees.

SAP Concur is on a journey to fully automate the expense management process, from purchase to reimbursement. Last year, we took a big step with our partnership with Mastercard. With the integration, meal expenses purchased with participating Mastercard corporate cards are automatically populated in Concur Expense, and alerts are issued if any additional information is needed.

We’ve heard from customers that they love the hands-free experience, commenting:

• The automation is really nice, and keeps the trips organized.
• Much faster data, and less time organizing expense reports.
• Solicits faster receipt capture while reducing duplicate risk.

We’re working to expand access to the integration so more Mastercard customers can benefit from a simpler and more efficient experience.

“At SAP Concur, we’re creating a world where travel and expenses practically manage themselves,” said Chris Juneau, SAP SVP, Head of SAP Concur Product Marketing. “We continue to deliver on that journey with these touchless experiences enabled by industry-leading generative AI and close partnerships with top payment providers.”

Additionally, American Express Global Business Travel has integrated its hotel marketplace, featuring over 2 million properties across 180 countries with competitive rates, into the new Concur Travel solution, providing customers access to comprehensive hotel content, including negotiated programs and preferred partner rates.

With its Concur Travel and Expense solutions, SAP remains the market share leader for worldwide travel and expense management software, with 49.6 percent 2023 market share [source: IDC]. These leading solutions are part of the SAP Business Suite, SAP’s comprehensive portfolio of integrated solutions that combines our core Cloud ERP and Line of Business applications, fueled by the world’s most powerful business data and actionable AI.

“We are redefining the business travel experience, raising the bar for integrated travel and expense management like never before with the power of SAP Business AI,” said Charlie Sultan, President of Concur Travel at SAP Concur. “It’s exciting to see our large, global customer base benefit from continual innovations that enhance the user experience and serve the needs of travelers, travel managers and CFOs.”

To learn more about announcements at SAP Concur Fusion or to join the virtual event visit here.

Source: IDC Worldwide Travel and Expense Management Software Market Shares, 2023: Resurgence of Business Travel Heralds a New Chapter in Travel and Expense Software, doc #US51658524, August 2024