MakeMyTrip ‘upgrades’ to bilingual GenAI travel assistant, eyes long-term ROI

MakeMyTrip Thursday launched a new GenAI-powered trip planning assistant in an “upgrade” to its existing AI agent, Myra. The new tool allows users to plan trips through voice and text in English and Hindi, with plans to add more Indian languages over time. 

While still early days, the platform could eventually bring in millions of new users and help the travel aggregator grow its top line in a market where nearly a billion people are online, but a much smaller fraction transacts online for travel, said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO of MakeMyTrip.

He made it clear that the company’s investment in GenAI isn’t about immediate ROI. “This business model at the core is built on technology… so the way we see technology is always through the lens of investment,” Magow told Fortune India during the press briefing. “We are not putting a number right now and telling our teams: ‘Okay, here's the target on this interface.’”

Instead, Magow called the GenAI assistant “an alternative interface” and positioned it as a long-term bet. “With every interaction, the intelligence is only going to improve… and there is an adoption journey that is there.”

The bigger picture is about future-proofing. “We’ve been investing behind this for a few years already,” Magow said. “On GenAI also, for the last couple of years. Because we see the potential, and we think that there could be potential disruption, and we as market leaders should lead that.”

MakeMyTrip reported a 21% year-on-year increase in adjusted operating profit for Q1FY26, reaching $47.3 million. While the company isn’t pegging any top-line projections directly to GenAI yet, it sees the tech as a crucial part of its long-term growth strategy.

“If you don't catch the right trend and if you’re not a front runner in that area, there's a larger risk… This is a long-term bet we are taking, with the belief that it will play out well,” added Sanjay Mohan, group CTO at MakeMyTrip.

One of the key motivations for going deeper into GenAI is language inclusion. India has around 900 million internet users, and yet the number of people booking travel online remains a fraction of that. MakeMyTrip sees this as its biggest headroom for growth.

“Today, we are starting with Hindi. It will come with the other regional languages as well,” said Magow. “We should be able to help users who have shied away so far… Eventually, when the new users come in, obviously they will translate into the new business.”

Mohan added that GenAI’s real impact on consumer-facing products will likely follow a classic “gradually, then suddenly” adoption curve. “That is what will happen with GenAI adoption also,” he said. “And when that shift happens, we should be there.”

Both Magow and Mohan pushed back on the fear that AI will replace jobs. “Whenever new technology blows up, there will always be anxiety, but it will be solved by upskilling,” said Magow, adding that the nature of engineering work has always evolved—from desktop to mobile, and now to AI and data science. “It will boil down to re-skilling the workforce, not necessarily getting too worried about whether there will be job losses.”