Navan goes all in on AI as a growth driver

Unless you’re living your most peaceful Luddite life, you’ve probably noticed that we seem to be settling into “trough of disillusionment” status on the AI hype cycle. From enterprises telling employees to slow down “tokenmaxxing” to the markets letting out a collective sigh of disappointment earlier this week, AI is no longer getting the benefit of the doubt.

However, there are revenue organizations that have found ways to use AI as a growth engine, and Navan says it is one of those still beaming about the technology. The corporate travel and expense management platform said it has infused AI into many of its functions, and it’s already seeing the results.

Revenue Brew spoke with two Navan executives about how it’s using the technology during its growth push.

AI on the inside: Rev orgs eager to find margins are often on the front lines of AI, and Navan is no different. Grant McGrail, CRO at Navan, told Revenue Brew that his team is using the technology for myriad things.

“We’re always looking for systems that give us better indicators on how we find the right people, how we make sure those people sitting in our business are actually engaged,” McGrail said.

He said his team uses AI in recruiting new sales professionals, generating demand, building out accounts, and account research. The company has even created 75 custom Gemini agents that specialize in a trove of rev org duties.

“The sales team has traditionally had [to] engage the right customers, get those customers to believe in our vision and our mission, and then get those customers onboarded,” McGrail said. “So we’re looking at ways that we can drive more efficiency into those workflows.”

AI on the outside: As Navan has grown, reeling in a reported $700 million in revenue last year, AI-driven products have also served as external revenue drivers.

President Michael Sindicich told us that implementing AI into products has helped optimize usage for customers. Primarily, this comes down to data and how products can use it to make bookings easier.

“We were using machine learning from day one. When someone searches in our product, they’re very likely to book one of the first three options that we show them, because we know their loyalty clubs, their past booking behavior, and where their coworkers are staying,” Sindicich said.

He also said that AI agents handle more than 55% of Navan’s customer support. Sindicich explained that AI’s ability to scale customers but maintain employee head count helped his company grow its gross margins from 50% t0 72%.

Moreover, increased use of AI hasn’t affected its CSAT, a core metric of customer satisfaction, a key win as Navan aims to maintain its brand through this growth phase.

“So you would say, ‘You’re offloading everything to AI. Are travelers unhappy?’ But our CSAT is at 96,” Sindicich told Revenue Brew. “You’re usually calling us when you have an issue and you’re frustrated, and to have 96 out of 100 people rate us at a five [out of five] is really incredible.”