When travel bookings fell to zero during the pandemic, Ixigo’s co-founder Rajnish Kumar remembers staring at a blank dashboard. “I still remember I saw zero actually in one of my reports that came on a specific day where we had absolutely zero bookings,” he says. Yet the crisis that nearly depleted the company’s reserves has become the pivot point for Ixigo’s transformation from a plain-vanilla online travel agency (OTA) into what Kumar calls an “AI-first travel company.”

Kumar outlines a three-pronged strategy around AI—efficiency, revenue, and disruption. On efficiency, Ixigo has built internal systems that use generative AI to accelerate coding, HR workflows, finance reporting, and partner receivables. On revenue, AI has powered products like Assured and Price Lock, which generate margins by solving for consumer anxiety. On disruption, a dedicated team works on moonshot projects, ensuring Ixigo doesn’t get blindsided by shifts in technology.

The company is already seeing measurable impact. “88% of our chats are completely closed by AI, 65% of our calls end-to-end are closed by AI, and the NPS (net promoter score) of those interactions is better than human beings,” Kumar says. Revenue per employee has touched $250,000 in the latest quarter, a level he compares with global tech leaders.

This focus is where the proceeds of Ixigo’s IPO are being channelled. “Most of the IPO proceeds we had been allocated would be consumed in this financial year. And most of it would be on AI,” Kumar says. From Rs 40 crore in FY19, the company’s revenue for FY25 stood at ₹914 crore, up 39% from ₹656 crore the previous year.

Ixigo today serves over half a billion unique users—nearly a third of India’s population—driven largely by deep penetration in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets. Consumers in these cities, Kumar says, are no longer limiting themselves to domestic destinations. “People are ditching Goa for Vietnam and Bali. A city like Lucknow now has direct flights to Bangkok,” he points out.

Kumar insists that in an AI-driven market, competitive advantage no longer lies in technology, execution, or distribution. “Technology is commoditised, execution is commoditised, distribution is commoditised. The only sustainable advantage left is customer experience,” he says.

Meanwhile, the Indian tourism industry has displayed strong recovery, fuelled by rising domestic travel and growing international arrivals. Mobile apps have become the backbone of travel bookings, with leading OTAs offering user-friendly platforms for on-the-go reservations. The market is also riding on the back of digital adoption: India is expected to have one billion affordable smartphone users by 2026, according to TRAI, and expanding high-speed internet access will further accelerate the shift toward online travel. For players like Ixigo, that creates a tailwind for its AI-first bet.