Navan Launches AI Chat Booking as Business Travel Gets Automated

Navan announced new AI-powered tools at Navigate, its first customer conference.

The company said the features are built to save time for business travelers, travel managers, and finance teams.

The update includes Book with AI, Expense with Video and Voice, a Travel Admin Companion, and an Expense Admin Companion. The tools are now in beta and will roll out to customers soon. Navan’s main goal is to make travel and expense management less manual, while still giving companies control over travel policy and spending.

Business trips can be booked through a chat

Book with AI lets employees plan trips by writing what they need in a chat. Instead of searching for flights and hotels one by one, a traveler can describe the trip in one message. The system then shows options that match the traveler’s plans and the company’s rules.

Navan says the tool connects to its travel inventory, which includes more than 600 airlines and 2.5 million hotels. It can also suggest neighborhoods, hotels, room types, and local events. This makes the feature work more like a digital travel advisor, but with company policy built in.

Expense reports may take less time

Navan also introduced Expense with Video and Voice. Employees can record a receipt and explain the reason for the expense by speaking. The AI reads the receipt, transcribes the voice note, and fills in the expense details.

The feature targets one of the most annoying parts of business travel: post-trip paperwork. Navan says around 73 percent of expenses on its platform are already approved automatically. The new Expense Admin Companion is meant to help finance teams review the remaining cases, especially when details are missing or a transaction looks unusual.

Admin tools focus on control and savings

The Travel Admin Companion is designed for managers who need quick answers about travel spending. Navan says future versions could also help managers take action, such as changing policy rules, blocking travel to specific destinations, or finding employees affected by disruptions.

The launch comes after Navan’s October 2025 IPO. The company raised about $923.1 million and listed on Nasdaq under the ticker NAVN. Reuters reported that Navan was founded in 2015 as TripActions and later expanded from corporate travel into expense and payment tools.

As AI becomes a bigger part of business travel, more companies are testing tools that can reduce manual work for travelers, agents, and finance teams. Sabre and BizTrip AI’s agentic corporate travel partnership shows how this trend is spreading across the sector. Their collaboration focuses on AI assistants that can help with booking requests, itinerary updates, policy compliance, and automated travel decisions, which closely connects to Navan’s push into conversational booking and expense automation.

Photo by Shengzhan Jiao on Unsplash