American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has launched an AI connector for its Egencia platform within Claude. The tool lets business travelers search, book, and manage air and hotel reservations directly through the AI assistant while following company travel policies.
Agent-to-agent architecture powers policy-compliant bookings
The system uses an “agentic thinking layer” to process travel requests. It divides tasks like flight searches or hotel bookings and assigns them to specialized agents, all while applying the traveler’s credentials and corporate rules.
This setup is already active in Egencia AI. Tool call sequencing accuracy exceeds 80%, and average response times stay under 25 seconds for multi-step workflows. The integration moves beyond providing travel information to handling complete transactions, including bookings and trip management.
Most AI travel tools only surface options or answer questions. Amex GBT’s method, however, focuses on fully managed corporate travel, where policy compliance and traveler profiles matter most. The approach addresses a key enterprise challenge: maintaining control over AI-driven decisions.
For companies, the benefit goes beyond convenience. The system reduces administrative work for employees while keeping bookings within policy. Results feed directly into reporting, giving businesses visibility into decision-making—an area where many struggle with autonomous AI.
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Enterprises want AI, but control remains a hurdle
Amex GBT commissioned a study from Forrester involving over 500 enterprise IT decision-makers and 2,000 business travelers. The results show strong interest in AI for travel, but persistent concerns about oversight.
Most decision-makers believe AI will transform business travel into an optimized system. Yet many see governance and auditability as major barriers to approving autonomous AI. While most were satisfied with their travel technology, few said their systems were fully integrated into enterprise workflows.
Travelers expressed more openness to AI assistance. A large majority said it could simplify their lives and trust it. However, only a small portion described their current travel experience as seamless—a gap Amex GBT aims to close with its approach.
The Claude integration uses Model Context Protocol to link Claude to Amex GBT’s systems. This lets Claude act on a traveler’s behalf instead of just returning information. One global technology company is testing a virtual travel concierge that combines booking with calendar and communications data to offer proactive suggestions.
Amex GBT isn’t limiting itself to Claude. Egencia AI is expanding into Google Chat, and a pilot is underway for a conversational assistant in Microsoft Teams. These tools allow travelers to search, book, and manage trips through natural language without leaving their collaboration platforms. In Google Chat, users can also connect with a human travel counselor if needed.
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The company is extending its infrastructure to other enterprise AI platforms, including Salesforce Einstein. The aim is to embed travel booking and management into broader workplace AI environments rather than treating them as separate applications.
“The conversation in our industry is shifting from connecting systems to connecting intelligence,” said Evan Konwiser, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Amex GBT. “With our Egencia AI connector in Claude, an employee or an enterprise AI agent can now search, book, and manage air and hotel for a traveler within policy, personalized, and backed by our marketplace, while benefiting from being wholly within their existing Claude enterprise environment. That’s true agent-to-agent integration for managed travel.”
John Sturino, Senior Vice President of Product & Engineering, highlighted the focus on consistency. “No matter what solution you’re on, Amex GBT intelligence is available to you,” he said. “Business travel has many moving parts, and just giving someone access to content still puts the burden on them. Our goal is to deliver the best experience and outcome, not just the best options, whether you’re a traveler or an AI agent acting on their behalf.”
The design reflects a broader shift in workplace AI tools. They are moving from information retrieval to handling transactions. For business travel, this means not just finding flights or hotels but booking them while staying within policy and reducing friction.
Egencia AI’s expansion aligns with the growing demand for new tools in ecommerce environments.
