Winning Travel's AI Race | Ariel Cohen, Navan and Molly O'Shea, Sourcery | RAISE Summit 2026

Navan's AI Strategy & Architecture

• The company utilizes "Navan Cognition," an internal orchestration platform designed to coordinate AI agents and human travel agents rather than replacing them entirely.
• Ariel Cohen explicitly rejects the notion that travel agents will become obsolete, citing the complexity, fragmentation, and personal nature of corporate travel as reasons for hybrid human-AI workflows.
• Current support interactions show that 60% of complex issues (e.g., rebooking, airport delays) are handled by the AI chatbot, Eva, with the system achieving satisfaction levels comparable to human agents.
• The platform employs a "supervisory model" structure where human supervisors and agents oversee AI agents, mirroring traditional call center hierarchies to manage failure points and ensure safety.

Operational Performance & Financials

• In the most recently reported quarter, Gross Booking Value (GBV) grew 50% year-over-year, while revenue increased by 40%.
• The company recently achieved profitability and positive cash flow.
• Legacy efficiency metrics from the company's inception show an average travel budget savings of 15% for clients (e.g., reducing a $100 million travel spend to $85 million) driven by machine learning.
• The company reports accelerating growth in AI integration, transitioning from early-stage conversational bots (which solved 10% of problems with 60% satisfaction) to the current agentic era.

Product Evolution & User Experience

• Navan moved beyond simple transaction booking to include "Navantage," a fully AI-driven end-to-end personal assistant for planning, booking, and managing travel, events, and dining.
• A key differentiator is the "Navan" model of blending business and leisure travel, rewarding employees with points for booking below policy thresholds to use for personal weekend trips.
• The company prioritizes customer needs over technology trends; leadership admits to never reading research papers, instead focusing on solving specific user journey pain points like sorting preferences.
• To combat hallucinations and ensure accuracy, the platform relies on strict guardrails and custom orchestration rather than purely off-the-shelf frontier models, preventing critical errors like wrong flights or unauthorized upgrades.

Market Position & Competitive Landscape

• Navan is actively capturing significant market share from legacy competitors (combinations of traditional travel agencies and concierge services) and is driving adoption among new AI-native companies.
• The company highlights that legacy players with live agent-heavy models struggle to integrate advanced AI, giving Navan a structural advantage in the infrastructure era.
• Ariel Cohen anticipates that the "SaaS" model is being replaced by performance-based revenue models where providers are paid upon task completion, aligning with how Navan's human and AI agents operate.
• New companies, such as Anthropic, are reportedly entering the travel management space directly through Navan's self-serve web platform rather than traditional agency channels.

Strategic Outlook & Leadership Perspective

• The primary strategic focus for the next 12 months is determining the future of work for individuals not participating in the AI revolution, recognizing that human consumers are the necessary market for AI companies.
• Ariel Cohen expressed strong bullishness on the human element, stating a belief that "people" remain more critical than ever in an AI-driven world, particularly for high-stakes executive travel.
• Future management offsites are scheduled for Ibiza, following previous locations in Tulum, reinforcing the company's core value of being "seriously fun."