The Future of Conversational AI in Travel Booking, ETTravelWorld
Leading online travel company MakeMyTrip has upgraded its AI-powered travel assistant Myra into a full conversational booking platform capable of handling the entire travel journey—from search and itinerary planning to final payment—within a single interaction.
The rollout marks one of the most significant conversational AI deployments in India’s online travel industry, as companies increasingly move beyond traditional search-and-filter interfaces towards AI-led travel planning experiences.
Unlike conventional booking systems that require users to navigate multiple pages and filters, the upgraded Myra is designed to complete complex domestic and international travel bookings entirely through conversation, including handling layered preferences and real-world travel constraints.
AI moves beyond search to transaction
While conversational AI has become increasingly common across travel platforms, the biggest challenge has remained completing the transaction flow within the same interface.
According to MakeMyTrip, the upgraded Myra is aimed precisely at addressing this gap.
“The hardest part of conversational AI booking isn’t the conversation. It’s closing the loop, taking a traveler all the way to a confirmed, paid booking, all inside the same conversation,” the company said in a statement shared via LinkedIn.
The platform currently supports interactions across seven Indian languages and English, and also enables voice-led interactions—an area the company believes will shape the next phase of travel search behaviour in India.
Voice emerging as the next battleground
MakeMyTrip said Myra has already crossed three million conversations per quarter, with over 45% of usage now originating from tier-II and smaller cities, highlighting the growing adoption of AI-led travel planning beyond metro markets.
The company also revealed that users engaging with Myra show 10% higher conversion rates compared to travellers using traditional filter-based booking journeys.
Voice interactions, meanwhile, are proving particularly significant. According to the company, voice prompts are approximately 40% longer than text-based interactions, indicating deeper and more detailed travel intent from users.
Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip, said voice-driven travel discovery is likely to define the next phase of digital travel evolution.
“The next shift in travel search will be shaped in large part by voice. Myra is how we are getting ready for that shift, while continuing to serve the traveller of today,” Magow said.
Travel industry’s AI race intensifies
The development comes amid intensifying competition among global and Indian travel platforms to integrate generative AI into booking, customer service and trip planning experiences.
Online travel companies worldwide are increasingly experimenting with AI-led interfaces capable of understanding traveller intent rather than relying solely on keyword-based search and filters.
Experts believe conversational AI could significantly reshape travel discovery in India, particularly as internet growth increasingly shifts toward regional-language users and first-time digital consumers.
The multilingual nature of the upgraded Myra also reflects the growing importance of vernacular internet adoption in India’s digital economy.
Beyond filters and forms
The platform’s ability to handle layered travel requests—including budget preferences, destination choices, travel style and itinerary modifications—signals a move away from rigid search architectures toward more fluid recommendation-led systems.
For online travel companies, such systems could potentially reduce booking friction, improve engagement and increase transaction completion rates.
The rollout also underlines how AI is increasingly becoming central to the future of travel commerce—not only for customer service automation, but also for influencing how travellers discover, compare and ultimately purchase travel experiences.
