Navan Upgrades its AI Chatbot to Target Corporate Travel Cost-Saving

25.08.2023 - 13:41 / skift.com / Selene Brophy

Corporate travel agency Navan aims to expand its market share, using artificial intelligence to its full advantage. 

The company sped out the Generative Predictive Text (GPT) gate in February with the launch of its traveler-facing chatbot Ava. Now, an upgraded version of the automated virtual assistant wants to be the best friend of chief financial officers and corporate finance teams as a real-time data analysis tool able to make cost-saving predictions.

Ava is said to help finance teams using OpenAI’s GPT-4 APIs for admin-facing data analysis, condensing complex real-time spend data and insights to improve corporations’ travel budget bottom lines.

Navan outlined the following examples in the launch release announcing Ava’s new capabilities:

Ava is also able to write and send an executive summary of its results — in multiple languages — even a poem if necessary, according to the company.

While Navan, as a tech startup, has been focused on AI technology to enhance its travel management and booking software service, its chatbot development adds an extra shine, and the company doesn’t appear short of investment funds to keep going. 

In October last year, Navan (formerly TripActions) raised $300 million, giving it a valuation of $9.2 billion, according to a company statement at the time. Since then, the corp travel startup has continued to expand through acquisitions, including Spain’s Atlanta Events & Corporate Travel Consultants and its most recent investment into corporate travel startup Tripeur, setting the scene for its market footprint in fast-developing India.  

The overall size of the Navan AI team was not disclosed, but it is led by Chief Technology Officer Ilan Twig, and spans its data, engineering and product departments. The company said it expects to continue leveraging generative AI to enhance Ava’s capabilities but when asked how much it has invested into its Open AI developments thus far, a company spokesperson said, “From the beginning, Navan has leveraged AI across its travel and expense platform to drive automation, predictability, optimization, and world-class customer support for our users — so this is just a continuation of Navan’s regular course of business.”

The Navan spokesperson further stated, “From personalized search results that recognize a user’s travel preferences to automated itemization that instantly categorizes line items on complex receipts, the company’s integration of AI is a key component of its category-defining Business Software Designed for People. Because we have always leveraged AI, integrating GPT is a natural next step in our regular course of action/ approach to software design. “

Ava’s data analysis is accessible through its admin dashboard to select