Travel expense software market swells towards $16B

The total revenue generated by T&E (travel & expense) management software will reach US$16 billion globally by 2027; that's almost double the current $8.7 billion expected to be generated.

Totally legit.

The figures are contained in a new study by Juniper Research.

According to the study's authors, the risk of expense fraud will increase as hybrid working grows, with remote working offering the ideal environment for employees to submit fraudulent reports.

The research anticipates that growing risks of employee expense fraud will drive demand for T&E management solutions. Manual T&E management practices are unable to detect expense fraud and are incapable of identifying all cases of fraudulent activity due to the volume of expense reports submitted.

Dedicated T&E management solutions, on the other hand, are capable of detecting and resolving numerous varieties of expense fraud, such as duplicate claims. They do this by leveraging AI (artificial intelligence) to detect new methods of fraud; saving businesses time and money.

Given these benefits are often overlooked, Juniper Research recommends that vendors in the market prioritise the development of AI-based anti-expense fraud capabilities and demonstrate these benefits when marketing their solutions.

Additionally, following the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become increasingly commonplace. The report found that this has led to a rise in expense fraud, as less supervision and outdated manual T&E management processes enable employees to submit fraudulent expense reports.

Research author Jordan Rookes explained, “Manual T&E management practices become inefficient and encourage expense fraud in remote working environments.

"With manual processes unfit for purpose, businesses will look to automated solutions to digitise the T&E management process; improving efficiency, and discouraging the submission of fraudulent expense reports, whilst improving fraud detection rates.”

Accordingly, vendors in the market must provide a streamlined solution that automates the creation of expense reports and reduces the administrative burden on employees who work remotely.