MakeMyTrip adds Microsoft’s GPT tech for voice-assisted travel booking

MakeMyTrip has inked a deal with Microsoft to use the tech giant’s generative AI technology built on OpenAI’s GPT language models, which includes ChatGPT and GPT-3 and GPT-4.

The India-based online travel agency says it will use the technology to introduce voice-assisted booking in Indian languages.

The company wants to make its platform more inclusive and accessible for consumers across India, a country that has 22 official languages and hundreds more unofficial ones.

“We have pioneered offerings at the intersection of e-commerce, travel, and technology and are proud to introduce a feature that breaks down the barriers of language, literacy, inability to navigate complex app environments, physical impairments, etc.,” said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO of MakeMyTrip.

“This generative AI integration through our collaboration with Microsoft involves simple visual cues and voice commands in native Indian languages that will alter the landscape of travel bookings hereon forth.”

The generative AI feature, powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Cognitive Services, is embedded into MakeMyTrip’s landing page and can be activated with a single click.

Using the voice-chat function, users can get personalized travel recommendations, curate holiday packages based on variables such as occasion, budget, activity preferences, time of travel, etc., and then book these holiday packages. The GPT-based system will also summarize hotel reviews tailored with relevance to the traveler’s persona, such as a solo traveler or a family. 

Currently the voice-assisted chat is available in English and Hindi for flights and holidays customers. In the future, the solution will cover other transport offerings.

“We are delighted to introduce revolutionary changes to our platform that align with our philosophy of leveraging tech to solve real consumer problems,” said Sanjay Mohan, group chief technology officer at MakeMyTrip.
“The new update will elevate the user experience and make our platform more inclusive, accessible, and easy to navigate. The beta phase will offer us learnings to further fine-tune all use cases before rolling it out to users at scale. As such, we’ll do a very controlled roll-out of this feature with a subset of our customers.”

In January Microsoft announced a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment in OpenAI – reported to be $10 billion – and has added the generative AI company’s language models including GPT-4, GPT-3 and DALL-E into its enterprise solutions. 

“MakeMyTrip is a pioneer in the travel industry, and we are honored to work together to define the next frontiers of AI driven innovation and customer engagement in the online travel industry,” said Sangeeta Bavi, executive director of digital natives at Microsoft India. 

“Bringing together MakeMyTrip’s expertise with Microsoft’s AI capabilities, including Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, our collaboration will help make travel more inclusive and accessible for travelers across India, with trust and security at the core.”