ixigo Hits The Generative AI Route With GPT-Powered Travel Chatbot

Online travel aggregator (OTA) Ixigo has become the latest Indian startup to jump on the generative artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon. The company on Wednesday (July 12) unveiled its ChatGPT-powered ‘intelligent’ trip planner, PLAN. 

Built on OpenAI’s ChatGPT API (GPT 3/GPT3.5), the plugin offers personalised recommendations, suggestions, and itineraries to travellers based on their current locations. Users can input their preferred destination, and PLAN will then automatically tag, map and generate a detailed itinerary for the chosen destination or theme. 

The new plugin also integrates weather and AQI updates on the destination, and enables users to customise itineraries in real-time and build trip plans. 

ixigo claims to be the first Indian travel company to have built a ChatGPT plugin. 

Speaking with Inc42, ixigo cofounder and chief product and technology officer (CPTO) Rajnish Kumar said that the company has been tinkering with OpenAI’s GPT models since 2020. He added the company built many internal use-cases on top of the GPT2 model, owing to its experimental technologies. 

The product, which has been in the works for the past three months, also leverages ixigio’s internal database of images and textual content to build a more streamlined application.  As per Kumar, the company internally conducted hack weeks to figure out different use cases for the GPT models, and eventually circled on the current use case out of 17 shortlisted ideas. 

“… We are also proud to become the first Indian tech company to have an official plugin on ChatGPT. This combines the power of an LLM with our data and APIs to answer interesting queries… In the next phase, we will introduce events, social trends, and real-time social sharing allowing users to collaborate with friends and family for a fun and interactive trip planning experience,” Kumar said.

With this, Ixigo has joined a growing list of Indian startups that have deployed generative AI technologies to further spur user engagement and introduce new offerings. Homegrown startups such as crypto investment platform Mudrex, insurtech startup Plum, retail tech startup Dukaan have also deployed generative AI in various aspects of their operations.

Even foodtech giant Zomato, following the footsteps of its quick commerce arm Blinkit, also began experimenting with generative AI earlier last month. 

Bolstering its local AI pitch, tech giant Google recently announced the names of 20 startups as part of its accelerator initiative. The catch here was that all the selected startups focussed on generative AI.

Not just this, tech giant Wipro, too, has announced that it would invest $1 Bn in improving its AI capabilities over the next three years. Earlier this month, it was reported that researchers at AI4Bharat were looking to raise $12 Mn from Peak XV and Lightspeed Venture to launch an AI startup.