Travel search app ixigo announced the launch of its upcoming artificial intelligence travel assistant – TARA. It is a voice enabled, 100% AI-driven travel assistant that helps users discover, plan, book and manage their travel.
Rajnish Kumar, CTO & Co-Founder, ixigo showcased Tara and received appreciation for its for features – which are the first in the world. Its features include voice based assistance, pre-emptive trip planning, automated frequent flyer programme management, seamless flight search & booking and automated web check-in.
Tara has been part of the overall vision at ixigo – to provide a personalized voice-based travel assistant that is 100% AI-driven. Aloke Bajpai, CEO & Co-Founder, ixigo has called Tara “the travel agent of the future.” He further goes on to describe it saying, “She has all flight-related information and deals at her fingertips. She is unbiased and knows the traveller’s preferences by assimilating contextual awareness. Tara will ensure travellers simply focus on enjoying their trip, and leave all their travel planning hassles to us.”
The company’s investors include Sequoia Capital India, Fosun Kinzon Capital, SAIF Partners, MakeMyTrip and Micromax. Launched in 2007, ixigo is an online and offline travel and hospitality business. They aggregate and compare real-time travel information, prices and availability for flights, trains, buses, cabs, hotels, packages & destinations. Tara will officially be launched in early 2018.
Chetan Kapoor, Research Analyst – Asia Pacific, Phocuswright said, “Many Indians still favour personal touch and professional recommendations during their travel bookings. By blending these aspects with a virtual, voice-based assistant on a smartphone, ixigo’s Tara has the potential to tap millions of Indian travellers which are migrating from offline to online booking channels – and seeking a curated travel shopping and booking service.”
