AI chatbots now at your service

Deep Kalra, Founder & CEO, MakeMyTrip, talks about their new chatbots powered by Artificial Intelligence offering multilingual support to their customers.

TT BUREAU

The invention of new technologies is a requisite for today’s companies, especially for OTAs to keep up with the demands of the industry. Deep Kalra, Founder & CEO, MakeMyTrip says, “Several new things are going on, but we are most excited about our technology as we have launched new chatbots. These will be artificial intelligence enabled bots online. It would mean that now our post sell queries are being serviced by chatbots. There is a chatbot called GIA, which is Goibibo assistant, which will serve clients when they are talking to them and parametrise the typical issues that people have after they have made a booking.”

The GIA chatbot, which is Goibibo assistant, serves clients when they are talking to them and parametrise the typical issues that people have after they have made a booking

He claimed that they are going to see a lot of growth in this segment. “We also want to take this from chat post sales to the voice post sales and even chat commerce. Thus, the future is all about artificial intelligence. The chatbot has already been live for three months,” informed Kalra.

Calling 2017 as a landmark year for them, Kalra said, “We did a large M&A with Goibibo on RedBus, which was owned by Nass Bus. Now, it is entirely in the same family—MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and RedBus all leading brands that happened early last year. The integration is now complete and growth has continued. Our hotel segment, which is the most valuable segment, now contributes 57 per cent of revenue, while air is 33 per cent. It is very important because that is how we acquire our customers, but hotel and package is where the market is moving. Buses are the third segment, and this is where you would see the growth. We also keep looking at opportunities in travel and tourism, especially technology-enabled ones,” claimed Kalra.

Talking on the sidelines of CII’s Annual Tourism Summit, which focused on sustainability, he said, “I think it is the need of the hour. If you don’t look at tourism through a sustainability lens, we are going to ruin every tourist spot. We have to make sure that the footprint, which is caused by tourism, is totally taken care of. While the primary responsibility lies with Ministry of Tourism, but as a private player, we need to reiterate our support wherever required.”