AI-Powered Operations: BCD Travel Partners with Oversee

BCD Travel, a leading global travel management company, has expanded its collaboration with Oversee, a specialist in artificial intelligence-driven spend optimization and agent operations. After a successful pilot program, BCD will adopt Oversee’s ‘agentic AI’ platform across its global operations. This technology automates high-volume, time-consuming agent tasks, including booking requests and passenger name record (PNR) creation. By automating repetitive workflows, BCD aims to boost agent productivity, meet strict service-level agreements, and maintain human-centric service quality even as digital transformation accelerates.

The travel management sector is witnessing rapid adoption of AI to reduce costs and improve efficiency. According to a 2024 Skift Research survey, over 60% of corporate travel managers are investing in machine learning tools for operations and spend analysis. BCD’s AI investment aligns with the global trend toward blending human expertise with advanced technology to deliver scalable, high-quality corporate travel services.

Modernizing Payments: TerraPay and XanderPay

In an era where cross-border hospitality transactions are complex and costly, payments provider TerraPay and hospitality payment platform XanderPay have joined forces to digitize and simplify hotel payments. By connecting TerraPay’s global financial network with XanderPay’s sector-specific solutions, the partnership enables hotels worldwide to centralize financial operations, accept an expanded range of payment methods, and reduce costs associated with legacy systems like SWIFT.

The joint solution streamlines third-party bookings, improves cash flow and treasury management, and supports the shift toward guest-centric payment models. With industry reports estimating global travel B2B payment flows to surpass $2 trillion in 2025, efficient and secure payment processing is a key focus for hotels seeking operational agility and cost savings.

Leadership Moves: Amex GBT’s New Brand & Experience Studio Lead

American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), one of the world’s largest travel management companies, has appointed Rich Atkinson-Toal as Global Vice President of Brand & Experience Studio. The studio, launched in 2024, orchestrates over 15,000 immersive, strategy-driven events per year by seamlessly blending creativity, logistics, and travel services.

This move reflects the growing importance of curated, experiential travel and meetings as companies seek to drive engagement, brand loyalty, and employee satisfaction in an increasingly remote and distributed work environment.

APIs for Hospitality: D-Edge Integrates with Expedia Group

Cloud-based hotel solutions provider D-Edge has become one of the first to pilot and launch integration with Expedia Group’s reservation management API, released in April 2025. This integration provides 17,000 D-Edge hotel clients with advanced guest personalization, leveraging Expedia’s vast loyalty and corporate guest data. The system also streamlines and secures tokenized payment processes, reducing risk and operational workload for hoteliers.

Personalized guest experiences are top-of-mind for hospitality brands, with 74% of hoteliers citing guest data integration as a top priority for 2025, according to HotelTechReport. The D-Edge and Expedia collaboration sets a standard for hotel tech innovation.

Cost Control and Direct Booking: Frenchospitality Adopts Eviivo

Frenchospitality, an operator of boutique hotels and hybrid accommodations in Paris, has migrated its portfolio—including hotels, serviced apartments, and co-living spaces—to Eviivo’s all-in-one platform. Since the transition, the company has reduced technology spend from 4% to just over 1% of annual revenue and pushed direct bookings to 35% of its sales, a notable achievement in a market dominated by OTAs.

By consolidating disparate technology tools into a single system and retaining preferred payment gateways to avoid high processing fees, Frenchospitality illustrates the growing trend among independent hotel groups to prioritize efficiency, direct sales, and cost containment.

Regional Expansion: Plan3 Appoints Vivian Meril

Disruption management tech specialist Plan3 has hired aviation industry veteran Vivian Meril to spearhead business development in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Meril, whose background includes senior roles at Amadeus, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Cleartrip, is tasked with accelerating Plan3’s regional footprint as airlines and airports invest in passenger disruption management solutions to mitigate post-pandemic operational volatility.

The move is timely, as APAC and MEA see surging travel recovery and increasing pressure on operational resilience.

Marketplace Growth: Traxo Adds New Partners

Corporate travel data platform Traxo has expanded its Traxo Marketplace with six new partners: AlertMedia, Alō Index, Elements, Fare Audit, Restrata, and Travlr ID. The integrations address risk management, return-on-investment analysis, travel auditing, and more, reflecting travel managers’ demands for holistic, real-time data ecosystems.

With over 400 companies utilizing Traxo Marketplace, the platform is fueling a trend toward open, partner-rich environments for corporate travel management.

Travel Tech Leadership: Mobi.AI Names CEO

Mobi.AI, known for AI-driven personalization and optimization in travel (and a 2024 Phocuswright Conference People’s Choice winner), has promoted Andrew Boch to CEO. Boch succeeds co-founder Anna Jaffe, who moves to the board, alongside CTO Peng Yu. The company also appointed Harriet Brown as chief product officer and named Jim Russell as an advisor. Leadership refreshes like this are increasingly common as AI-focused travel startups scale amid intense investment and demand for personalized experiences.

Industry Expertise: Fora Adds Expedia Veteran to Board

Fora, recognized as a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup in 2023, has welcomed Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia and IAC Travel, to its board. Blachford, now an investor focused on travel, wellness, and clean energy, brings extensive industry experience to support Fora’s mission to empower travel advisors and independent agents with modern tools and education.

Executive Appointments: Awaze and Accelya

Awaze, Europe’s leading managed vacation rentals group, has confirmed Matthew Price as permanent CEO. Price will prioritize technological innovation and CRM improvements to help Awaze weather a competitive rental market. Meanwhile, travel tech solutions provider Accelya, in partnership with Temoji and Paul Tilstone, has launched the Business Travel Innovation Group (BIG)—a forum for enterprise buyers to shape airline retailing and address challenges in New Distribution Capability (NDC) implementation.

Despite NDC’s promise, the new BIG guide highlights industry coordination, not technology, as the main hurdle, with further progress expected at the upcoming Global Business Travel Association summit.