AI Updates in SAP Concur Aim to Improve Receipt Analysis, Spending Planning

SAP Concur is bringing a new wave of AI and agentic capabilities to travel and expense (T&E), with updates that aim to automate time-consuming tasks, tighten controls, and make compliant travel the path of least resistance for business users. At the center of these innovations are Joule Agents and new AI features that strive to automate and simplify receipt verification and spending planning.

AI for Easier Receipt Analysis

SAP has been rolling out new Joule Agents, its prebuilt AI Agents designed for specific business tasks, to its cloud line-of-business apps, including SAP Concur, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Ariba. For SAP Concur, the Receipt Analysis Agent, which was made generally available in Q4 2025, should now be embedded in ExpenseIt, the Concur Expense component that converts receipt photos into expense entries.

Instead of simply reading text, the agent fills in missing fields by combining receipt content with contextual data such as maps, vendor databases, web information, and trip itineraries from Concur Travel. It is designed to infer likely expense types and detect anomalies that would normally require a human approver or an AP clerk to catch, and to deliver accurate results on the first pass without lengthy customer-specific model training. From the traveler’s perspective, this means fewer fields to key in, and fewer corrections requested after submission, while finance and shared services teams benefit from more consistent data and less time spent untangling incomplete entries.

In addition to the Receipt Analysis agent, SAP Concur is also seeking to fight fire, as it has become easier to generate fake receipts with Generative AI (GenAI) tools. The vendor has added an AI-generated receipt checker to its Verify feature, with the checker rolling out for expanded use in the Intelligent Audit module in 2026.

This AI functionality is meant to analyze receipt images and associated metadata to identify patterns that suggest they were generated by AI or sourced from online templates, and then automatically flag suspicious entries for human auditor review. The goal is to safeguard expense programs from emerging fraud vectors while preserving a largely automated user experience.

GenAI for Spending Planning

SAP Concur is also using GenAI to introduce a new pre-spend planner into the budgeting and approval stage, not just for post-facto reconciliation. The planner, which will be generally available in early 2026, will use details about a proposed trip, along with company policies, to estimate likely travel costs for airfare, hotels, per diems, and ancillary spend, while surfacing relevant travel advisories so travelers and approvers can make more informed decisions. It is expected to generate shareable cost estimates that should make it easier for managers and finance teams to compare options and maintain budget visibility.

These AI additions to SAP Concur are part of the overall SAP Business AI strategy. As that takes shape, SAP Concur customers should expect to see more use of GenAI and AI Agents in their applications in 2026 and beyond.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Treat SAP Concur’s new AI features as core, not optional. The Receipt Analysis Agent, AI-generated receipt checker, and pre-spend planner are designed to augment and expedite T&E work, so this is the right time to identify where travelers, auditors, and AP teams are spending the most manual effort and align those pain points with the new capabilities SAP is delivering.

Use the 2026 rollout window to tighten data, policies, and integration. Clean cost centers, well-structured expense categories, and clearly documented travel and expense policies will determine how effective the new agents and controls can be. Align SAP Concur configuration, ERP integration, and policy documentation now so AI-driven suggestions, validations, and fraud checks operate against consistent, trustworthy information.

Coordinate T&E strategy with finance, procurement, and supplier management. Align SAP Concur’s AI roadmap with SAP Cloud ERP, SAP Business AI, and broader supplier initiatives so travel and expense data can flow cleanly into analytics, negotiations, and planning across the SAP landscape.