AI Is Compressing The Travel-Booking Journey: MakeMyTrip CTO

Conversational AI is transforming how travelers interact with booking platforms, as highlighted by MakeMyTrip Group CTO Sanjay Mohan at Inc42’s inaugural 'The CTO Summit 2026'. In today's digital age, users can pose queries about flights, visas, and promotional offers all at once, compared to the traditional sequential process of browsing listings, selecting options, providing personal details, making payments, and receiving confirmations.

Mohan provided an example where a user could request a flight with minimal layover time, no transit visa, and specific bank card deals in a single conversation.

To manage these complex requests, MakeMyTrip is integrating knowledge graphs and advanced search technology that interpret meaning rather than merely matching keywords. For instance, a traveller seeking a ‘serene getaway’ should be able to find suitable accommodations regardless of whether the term is used in the listing. This shift towards understanding intent also applies to voice interactions, with the company expanding speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities, especially in smaller cities where typing may be difficult.

Currently, voice interactions account for 30-40% of the platform’s activity in Tier III and IV regions.

MakeMyTrip’s AI assistant Myra manages these conversational interactions across various customer touchpoints, employing around 10-12 specialist AI agents for different travel needs. These agents, including those for flights and accommodations, are coordinated by a central system that directs tasks and amalgamates responses. Mohan emphasized that while using the most advanced AI models can boost quality, it also escalates costs and response times.

Therefore, MakeMyTrip employs a mix of leading-edge, open-source, and open-weight models, choosing the most suitable model for each specific task. The company also stresses the importance of comprehensive evaluation sets to verify the relevance and accuracy of each AI agent’s responses, covering aspects such as live prices, availability, response relevance, and the retention of user-provided information in prior conversation segments.