Inside ixigo’s Agentic AI Travel Push

by · Inc42

SUMMARY

  • ixigo has rebuilt its travel app around an AI-native architecture instead of layering a chatbot on top of its existing interface
  • The company believes AI agents will eventually handle everything from flight bookings and refunds to check-ins and itinerary planning
  • Backed by strong Q3 FY26 growth, ixigo is now earmarking a sizable portion of fresh capital toward both organic and inorganic AI investments
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The travel app has barely changed in over a decade.

You search. You scroll endlessly through filters. You open five tabs to compare timings, baggage rules, cancellation policies and hotel reviews. Then comes the real anxiety: will the flight run on time? Do I need a transit visa? Is this hotel actually close to the city centre?

Travel apps solved booking. They never fully solved decision fatigue.

But listed OTA platform ixigo now believes AI can rewrite the travel experience. And at the centre of it all is TARA, the company’s AI-native travel assistant that it claims brings agentic experiences for customers.  

Instead of functioning like a chatbot layered on top of an existing app, the company has rebuilt the experience around what it calls an agentic AI layer capable of navigating the app, understanding intent, comparing options, surfacing contextual information. It can even complete actions on behalf of users.

For instance, instead of manually opening multiple menus to add filters while searching for flights or hotels, users can simply ask TARA for exactly what they want as they would talk to any agent. For instance, one could request a shorter layover, higher baggage allowance, public transport access for hotel bookings as well as other amenities. 

The assistant handles it in one go.

For ixigo cofounder, CEO and chairman Aloke Bajpai, TARA solves a fundamental issue with travel planning. It is often less about transactions and more about reducing uncertainty. And ixigo’s bet is that AI can compress decision-making, simplify discovery, and make travel platforms accessible to users who may otherwise struggle with cluttered interfaces and information overload.