“We see AI as a net positive for online travel platforms, particularly in large emerging markets such as India,” MakeMyTrip co-founder and Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rajesh Magow said on the company’s earnings call for the quarter ended September 30, the second quarter of financial year 2026-27 (Q2 FY27).
Magow argued that general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) assistants such as ChatGPT can’t replace MakeMyTrip. He also said customers still use the company’s own assistant, Myra, mostly for help while booking, rather than to complete whole bookings. Beyond AI, MakeMyTrip kept shifting away from flights as air travel fell further.
1. MakeMyTrip says AI agents can’t replace it
“A general assistant can recommend. A travel platform is accountable for delivery,” Magow said.
Magow gave three reasons:
- Supply: Most Indian hotels, homestays and bus operators don’t have usable listings online. “In India, much of that layer does not exist on the open web,” he said. MakeMyTrip lists over 105,000 stays across 2,000 cities and over 50,000 bus schedules a day.
- Data: “General-purpose models built on public information do not have this transaction-level understanding,” Magow said, referring to MakeMyTrip’s two decades of bookings and reviews.
- Servicing: When a trip goes wrong, “the customer needs a clear point of contact who can rebook, refund, and coordinate with supplier,” he said.
Sachin Salgaonkar of Bank of America said the company risked “losing revenues” if customers moved to AI agents. “I don’t think we should jump to conclusion at this point in time in India,” Magow replied. MakeMyTrip will keep building Myra while it experiments with outside assistants, he said. It partnered with OpenAI in February.
2. Customers use Myra for help, not to book whole trips
“Myra now engages in over 90,000 daily conversations and assists over 3,000 bookings a day,” Magow said.
That’s up from 25,000 conversations a day a year ago. Customers who use Myra book 1.7 times as often as those who don’t, and 2.1 times as often in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, which account for 55% of its conversations. Myra also resolves over 53% of post-booking queries on flights and hotels without a human.
Customers aren’t yet booking whole trips through it, though. MakeMyTrip launched end-to-end booking and payment inside Myra last quarter, and Magow called it “early” then. This quarter, he said customers “are quite happy to use agent for assistance as and when they need it.” He gave no figures for bookings completed fully inside Myra.
The call also didn’t cover how Myra ranks the options it recommends, a question MediaNama raised when Myra launched.
3. AI is lifting hotel bookings and cutting costs
“Early efficiency gains are creating room to fund future growth,” Chief Financial Officer Dipak Bohra said.
- Hotel search: Searches in plain language make up 10% of hotel searches and convert 24% better than filter-based search.
- Recommendations: A new AI recommendation system raised hotel conversions by 2.5%, and by nearly 6% for premium stays.
- Operations: MakeMyTrip uses AI to write listings, onboard small hotels and bus operators, handle customer servicing and help its engineers.
4. MakeMyTrip leans on hotels, buses and cabs as flights fall
“Promoting drive down breaks, short duration holidays, pilgrimage-led trips,” Group Chief Financial Officer Mohit Kabra said, describing what MakeMyTrip pushed as air travel weakened.
Domestic air departures fell 7% year-on-year, after staying flat last quarter, and fares rose 25% to 30%. MakeMyTrip held its share of over 30% of domestic air ticketing. Businesses other than flights rose to 63.2% of gross bookings, from 61.5% a year earlier:
- Hotels and packages: Adjusted margin grew 20.2% in constant currency.
- Buses: Adjusted margin grew 29%.
- Intercity cabs: Growing over 40% a year from a small base.
5. MakeMyTrip says it won’t compete on discounts
“You don’t typically achieve stickiness with the customers by just going completely deep discounting way,” Magow said.
Kabra said competition hadn’t intensified. Marketing spending rose slightly, to 5.4% of gross bookings, while the adjusted operating margin slipped to 1.7% from 1.8% a year earlier. Last quarter, Kabra said MakeMyTrip would prioritise market share over profitability.
6. The India listing still has no date
MakeMyTrip India Limited confidentially filed a draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in July. Timing depends on regulatory approvals and market conditions, Bohra said.
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