Can AI Fix the Broken Travel Industry?

In this episode, we bring together three distinct generations of travel founders – Aloke Bajpai (Ixigo), Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip), and Hari Ganapathy (PickYourTrail) – each of whom has built through a different phase of India’s internet evolution.

What emerges is not just a story of travel going online, but a deeper shift in how Indians discover, plan, and experience travel. From disintermediation to comparison to personalisation, the conversation traces how consumer behaviour, trust, and technology have evolved together, offering a sharp view into where AI may reshape the category next.

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‍Most Fascinating Insights

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The Indian traveller hasn’t just upgraded, they’ve split into many segments

A common narrative is that Indian travellers are “graduating” – from budget to premium, domestic to international, and package tours to self-planned trips. The reality is far more fragmented. Multiple segments are evolving simultaneously. While one traveller is abandoning Manali because of overtourism, another is discovering it for the first time to experience the magic of snowfall. Urban millennials are obsessing over homestays and offbeat itineraries, even as spiritual tourism quietly accounts for 25-30% of all travel in the country. 

The implication: large parts of the market remain consistently underserved.

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The biggest friction in Indian travel is trust, not access. And discounts don’t build trust.
A large portion of travellers still walk into hotels and negotiate in person as seeing a room still feels safer than trusting a photo. It’s a rational response to years of pricing inconsistencies, misleading photos, and unreliable service. The industry’s answer has largely been discounts and cashbacks, but that doesn’t solve for perceived risk.. 

The result: Online penetration is realistically just 10-12%, not the 30% cited in reports. Solving trust at scale remains one of the biggest unlocks for online travel in India.

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AI’s real opportunity is reducing planning complexity, not just automating tasks

Most of the AI in travel conversation focuses on automation – faster customer support, smarter search, and summarised reviews. That’s real value, but it’s not the deepest problem. Planning a trip today means hopping across multiple platforms and managing uncertainty. AI can compress this fragmented process into a single, coherent experience by holding context and connecting the dots from discovery to experience. 

The value lies in reducing cognitive load and making travel feel simpler, not just faster.

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The future interface of travel may be conversational
As voice AI and multimodal systems improve, travel interactions may move away from forms and filters. Instead of navigating interfaces, users may describe what they want and receive tailored outcomes. This becomes especially powerful in markets like India, where many users are more comfortable speaking than typing. 

The companies that win may be the ones that build the most intuitive interaction layer.

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Episode Timestamps

00:00 – Coming Up
01:03 – Introduction
01:30 – Core insight behind MakeMyTrip’s founding
03:42 – Market gap ixigo set out to solve
05:20 – Insight that led to the founding of PickYourTrail
07:42 – Evolution of the Indian traveller
11:55 – How different generations travel
16:50 – Rise of travel influencers & impact on decision-making
22:36 – Why is online penetration in hotels lagging?
30:04 – Why hotel owners resist software adoption
34:19 – What’s still broken in travel
41:10 – How MakeMyTrip is leveraging AI
49:10 – Value of Voice AI in travel sales
58:28 – Can AI disrupt corporate travel?
01:05:50 – Should travel tech companies become AI-enabled agencies?
01:08:51 – Travel startup opportunities
01:11:13 – Predictions for travel in 2035
01:13:39 – Future traveller behaviour shifts