Global activation of ‘Sam’ ushers in a new era of AI intelligence for FCM Travel customers

Singapore, 12 May 2026 - FCM Travel today announced that Sam – already known to customers as the company’s AI travel companion - has been fundamentally reimagined. What goes live across more than 90 countries in June is not just an upgrade.

It is a new category. A proprietary AI intelligence ecosystem built at the core of FCM’s technology, making Sam the intelligence layer running through everything FCM does - not a feature sitting on top of it. For existing customers, what’s coming will feel like a different product entirely.

This is a genuine, game-changing first for the managed travel industry. A lot of our competitors are trying to bolt AI onto existing stacks, but the real power in AI is that the more connected it is, the more you can do with it. Sam is built, not bought - and that compounds over time.

- John Morhous, Global Chief Experience Officer, FCM Travel

Sam intelligence works across all roles - travelers, arrangers, and travel managers - with equal depth. Most AI in managed travel still focuses on a single point in the journey. Underpinning it all is FCM’s proprietary technology architecture, which defines which trusted data sources Sam queries for each interaction, preventing hallucination and ensuring enterprise-grade accuracy.

Customer data is stored in FCM’s private environment and never used to train public AI models.

Central to Sam’s architecture is its proprietary guardrail system - a capability that goes far beyond hallucination prevention. Travel managers can configure precisely how Sam responds to specific query types, ensuring answers always reflect their policies and rules of engagement.

A traveler not entitled to business class will never receive a recommendation for a premium fare. An out-of-policy hotel will not be surfaced as an option.

Spend thresholds, approval workflows, and supplier preferences are all automatically enforced in conversation, giving organizations the benefits of conversational AI while retaining the program controls that enterprise travel demands.

“Travelers are tired of fragmented experiences – piecing together more than five tools just to get through a trip,” said Morhous. 

“Sam isn’t a single point of support. It’s there throughout the entire journey, for every person in a travel program. Because our AI is proprietary, the accuracy and compliance enterprises need isn’t bolted on - it’s built in.”

But what truly sets this apart is our people. Sam works alongside our travel consultants so that when a human moment matters most - a disruption, a complex itinerary, an urgent need - our experts step in with the speed, context, and care that no technology alone can replicate. Sam makes those moments more meaningful, not less.

At launch, Sam delivers end-to-end trip support across the full traveler journey, with real- time program data intelligence for travel managers through plain-language conversation, seamless handoff to FCM consultants with full context intact, and a unique smart redirect into customers’ existing booking tools - the only AI solution in managed travel to offer this.

“June is only the beginning,” said Morhous. “Because we own our technology end-to-end, every release makes our customers’ programs smarter."

“Sam intelligence compounds - and so does the advantage it creates for the organizations that run on it. What’s coming next will redefine what clients expect from a travel management company.”