B2B Payments in Travel: AI With a Human Touch
At ITB Asia 2025 in Singapore, Darren Thang, Head of Marketing at Sunrate, shared how B2B payments in travel are being rebuilt for speed, control, and better customer experiences. For marketers, this is a clear signal: the brands that win will combine automation with meaningful, human interaction.
Thang's message was simple-make payments simpler for clients, reduce operational drag, and use AI to serve faster without losing the personal touch travel buyers still value.
Why ITB Asia still matters
ITB Asia remains a high-value meeting point for travel companies to pressure-test ideas and deepen partnerships. Sunrate uses it to sit with clients, learn the blockers, and present solutions that actually move the needle.
If you're scouting trends or partners, it's a useful anchor event to track each year. Learn more about the show at ITB Asia.
What Sunrate is building for travel finance
Sunrate supports online travel agents (OTAs), travel management companies (TMCs), airlines, and hotels with B2B payment rails that make supplier payouts faster and more predictable. Their cashback commercial cards stand out, but the bigger story is end-to-end payment operations: funding, routing, reconciliation, and control-all in one place.
Marketers can frame this in outcomes, not features: fewer failed payments, cleaner reconciliation, better cash visibility, and smoother supplier relationships. That's the value proposition buyers care about.
AI that speeds service-without replacing people
Travel is still relationship-led. People want face time, quick answers, and a partner who understands the business. Thang made it clear: AI is there to reduce busywork so teams can focus on strategic conversations.
Think ticket triage, data enrichment, instant payment status updates, smarter routing, and risk checks in the background. Sales and account teams keep the relationship; AI clears the queue.
As Thang said, "AI handles the mundane tasks, freeing our sales team for more strategic and creative work." That's the positioning customers want to hear.
How Sunrate blends AI with the human touch
Many worry AI means fewer jobs or colder service. Sunrate takes the opposite stance: keep the relationship core intact while AI accelerates response times and reduces manual errors.
Clients still value a lunch, a quick call, or a direct Slack message with someone they know. AI supports that by handling the admin in the background so the human moments are higher quality.
Marketing playbook: turning this into clear messaging
- Lead with outcomes: faster supplier payouts, fewer disputes, higher on-time rate, and lower processing costs.
- Show the blend: "AI speed, human service." Spell out which tasks AI automates and where people step in.
- Prove it: publish case studies with metrics-acceptance rates, time-to-resolution, reconciliation accuracy, and days of working capital improved.
- Address risk early: highlight compliance, controls, and audit trails to build trust with finance and ops buyers.
- Map the workflow: before/after diagrams of payment operations resonate with busy teams and shorten sales cycles.
- Offer self-serve clarity: live status, instant supplier verification, and easy reporting win repeat business.
What to watch next
Sunrate plans to expand into more markets and keep improving the platform. Expect deeper automation, richer data in reconciliations, and smarter controls as AI matures.
Marketers should track two threads: where AI reduces friction in sales and service, and where human interaction increases trust and deal velocity. The sweet spot is both.
For marketers building AI skills
If you're shaping go-to-market for AI-enabled products (or bringing AI into your own workflows), structured upskilling helps. See the AI Certification for Marketing Specialists for practical, campaign-ready training.
Bottom line
B2B payments in travel are getting faster and smarter. Sunrate's approach is clear: automate the grunt work, keep relationships personal, and show measurable gains in time, cost, and control. That's a story buyers understand-and one marketers can scale.
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