AI travel bots gain traction as users seek faster itinerary planning - Business Standard

2026-05-13 · Source: artifical intelligence via Google News · Field: Business & Management — Corporate Strategy & Leadership, E-commerce & Digital Commerce, Project & Product Management · Depth: Fundamental Awareness, quick

Summary

Indian travel aggregators MakeMyTrip (MMT), Yatra, and Ixigo are increasingly integrating AI-powered assistants into their platforms to meet evolving consumer demands for faster, more conversational, and intent-driven travel planning. Ixigo, backed by Prosus, recently rebuilt its app to incorporate native AI, launching "Tara" (Travel Assistant and Recommendation Agent) on Wednesday. Tara is a multimodal AI-native assistant designed to facilitate conversational travel search and bookings in English, Hindi, and Hinglish, moving beyond traditional transactional experiences. This strategic shift reflects a belief among industry leaders that AI agents will play a central role in assisting travelers throughout their journey, from planning to post-trip support.

Key takeaway

For Product Managers developing travel platforms, integrating conversational AI assistants like Tara is crucial for meeting user demand for faster, more intuitive planning. Your strategy should prioritize multimodal AI that understands user intent and supports diverse languages to enhance the entire customer journey, from initial search to post-trip assistance. Consider rebuilding core app functionalities to natively embed AI, ensuring a seamless and proactive user experience.

Key insights

AI-powered conversational assistants are becoming central to online travel planning for enhanced user experience.

Principles

• Future travel is agent-led
• AI should understand intent
• Multimodal AI enhances interaction

Method

Rebuilding apps to integrate native AI for conversational search and booking, supporting multiple languages like English, Hindi, and Hinglish.

In practice

• Implement multimodal AI assistants
• Support multilingual interactions
• Focus on intent-driven experiences

Topics

• AI Travel Bots
• Conversational AI
• Itinerary Planning
• MakeMyTrip
• Yatra

Best for: Product Manager, AI Product Manager, Director of AI/ML, Consultant

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by artifical intelligence via Google News.