MakeMyTrip has long been at the forefront of integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into its operations, long before these technologies became industry buzzwords. According to Raj Rishi Singh, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, the online travel giant uses AI and machine learning to power a variety of services, from personalized hotel recommendations to dynamic pricing for products like visa cancellation top-ups and the popular book-now-pay-later options. “Our algorithms are designed to factor in individual preferences, ensuring that every user experience is tailored to their needs,” Singh explains.
Despite these strides in technology and marketing, Singh is cautious about labeling AI as a “disruptor” in the traditional sense. Instead, he views it as a powerful enabler that enhances existing capabilities. The real disruption, he believes, lies in the ever-shrinking window of opportunity to capture consumer attention. “Today’s premium consumers are elusive, scattered across multiple devices, often behind paywalls, and their attention spans are increasingly fleeting,” Singh observes.
Reflecting on MakeMyTrip’s progress in 2024 and its forward-looking plans, Singh recently spoke with Storyboard18 to discuss the evolving role of generative AI, trends to watch in the year ahead, and the company’s broader strategy to maintain its competitive edge in a rapidly changing digital landscape.
Edited excerpts:
What were the key highlights for you and your teams in 2024?
Maybe six or seven years back, we were known as a flight brand, right? Then we started building our hotels offering comprehensively. This year, for example, our top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) for flights and hotels is similar.
People know us as much for hotels as they know us for flights, and we have become the go-to market brand for both. This year, we have also ensured that our other offerings scaled up. For example, we have been constantly investing on both the demand and the supply side of international travel.
We made a full-fledged consumer campaign to tell our users who love us for domestic travel to also use MakeMyTrip for international trips, and that’s paid off quite well. People using MakeMyTrip for international travel has gone up dramatically. Our international business, including both hotels and flights, has scaled up.
And then we have started solving for Forex. Our overall ideology is that for an Indian consumer, whatever they need—whether it’s for domestic or international travel—we should have everything available on the platform so that the consumer can enjoy one seamless journey.
For example, we have expanded our offerings from flights and hotels to include flights, hotels, cabs, buses, trains, and Forex. We have also started offering visas.
So, we have improved the offerings across the board. Secondly, we have also made consumers aware that these offerings are available. For example, why should you use MakeMyTrip for Forex? Because we deliver your Forex to your doorstep at transparent exchange rates. We’ve built these USPs for all our offerings and then used consumer campaigns to educate them.
On another front, we’ve had a very decent year ensuring that, A, we have offerings across all travel needs—not just limited to hotels and flights—and B, there’s consumer awareness about them. Consumers are now considering us when they think about these opportunities.
What defining trends stood out this year?
A good thing about travel as a category is that consumers are taking more trips per year. For example, the number of people taking three or more leisure trips a year has gone up by 25%. Travel frequency has definitely increased.
Indians have always been spontaneous, but now we’ve seen that booking windows have gotten even shorter, even for international trips. For example, more than 50% of our hotel bookings for leisure are done less than a week before the travel date. People are making spontaneous decisions, often based on opportunities like long weekends.
The rise of flexible working arrangements, such as partial work-from-home setups, is also influencing travel behavior.
Another trend we’ve observed is the growing interest in unexplored destinations. For example, we’ve seen almost a 30% growth in 16 emerging tourist destinations. Take Kazakhstan—it wasn’t a well-known country in India, but it’s now one of our top-performing destinations.
If you look at the top 10 emerging destinations, traffic volume for us has grown by more than 70%. People want new experiences and places to discover.
There’s also a trend of premiumization. The top 10 million households in India are becoming more affluent. They’re spending not just on travel but on making their travel more luxurious. For instance, we’re seeing strong growth in searches for business class flights on international segments. More than 20% of family travelers have booked room nights where the tariff was over INR 10,000.
There’s a clear shift towards premiumization, whether it’s in hotels, flights, or destinations. These trends will continue shaping the travel industry in the coming years.
How did the rise of AI and generative AI impact the travel industry this year?
We’ve been using AI and machine learning long before they became fashionable. For example, many of our recommendation engines are powered by machine learning. This allows us to understand past behavior and predict differences between consumers.
For instance, when we recommend hotels, it’s based on AI and ML algorithms that consider individual preferences. Similarly, products like visa cancellation top-ups or book-now-pay-later are priced using AI and ML models.
This year, we also started using generative AI. For example, in our national holidays campaign, generative AI enabled us to create multiple collaterals. We could generate personalized creatives for Thailand versus Bali and place them contextually. So, if you’re an in-market audience for Thailand, you’d see a different creative than someone in-market for Europe, even though the source material is the same.
We’re also using generative AI for summarization. For instance, there’s a lot of consumer content available, such as hotel reviews. Using generative AI, we can contextualize and summarize reviews. If a user is traveling for leisure, they might see information about the swimming pool or breakfast. For a business use case, they might see details about the internet connection. This makes reviews far more meaningful based on the user’s context.
What disruptive trends do you foresee in 2025?
I wouldn’t call AI a disruptor—it’s more of an enabler. The real disruption is how difficult it is to capture consumer attention. Premium consumers are behind paywalls, they’re using multiple devices, and their attention spans are short.
For example, two consumers with the same persona and income levels might consume entirely different content. The challenge is using advanced technologies like AI and generative AI to reach out to them effectively.
Another trend is offbeat travel. When someone searches for Goa, they know they’re going to Goa. But how do we inspire consumers who don’t have a specific destination in mind? As India’s largest travel app, we want to help them discover new places.
Hyper-personalization is another major focus. Unless we use AI and ML to personalize at scale, we won’t stay relevant to consumers. These are the areas we’ll continue focusing on.
We want to speak to every consumer in a highly relevant way. We’re investing heavily in improving our marketing technology stack to build consumer love by being personal and relevant without infringing on privacy.
This is also a significant year for us as MakeMyTrip celebrates 25 years in the market.