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AI-Native Architecture Takes Center Stage
ixigo has rolled out a fully AI-native version of its travel application, a significant departure from previous iterations that layered AI features onto existing interfaces. The company positions this as a foundational shift, building the entire platform around artificial intelligence from its inception. This strategic move aims to deliver a more fluid, intuitive, and automated user experience.
Revamped TARA Assistant Powers Conversation
At the core of the revamp is TARA, ixigo's multimodal AI assistant. TARA is engineered to engage users through voice, text, and tap interactions, supporting English, Hindi, and Hinglish. Its capabilities extend to handling complex conversational travel queries, offering personalized recommendations for flights and hotels, and streamlining itinerary planning. This conversational approach seeks to make travel booking feel less transactional and more like interacting with a knowledgeable travel agent.
'Trip Mode' Consolidates Travel Information
The new application introduces "Trip Mode," a dedicated travel companion designed to centralize all post-booking information. This includes crucial details such as boarding passes, gate and terminal assignments, baggage belt updates, and live travel alerts. The feature also provides proactive, contextual prompts, such as calculating the optimal time to leave for the airport based on real-time traffic conditions, enhancing the pre-travel and in-transit experience.
Agentic Flows Automate Background Tasks
Furthering the automation drive, ixigo has implemented "agentic travel flows." These AI agents operate autonomously in the background to perform various travel-related tasks. Examples include automatically sending boarding passes via WhatsApp, updating users on flight timing or gate changes through digital wallets, managing refund processes during cancellations, and coordinating check-in details with hotels. This aims to reduce the manual effort required from travelers.
The Gurugram-based company asserts that the redesigned app offers hyper-personalization, dynamically adapting to a user's historical travel patterns, stated intent, and current stage in the travel journey. Founders Rajnish Kumar and Aloke Bajpai believe the future of travel is increasingly "agent-led," with AI proactively assisting travelers before, during, and after their trips. ixigo platforms, including ConfirmTkt and AbhiBus, reported over 54 crore annual active users in FY25.