Ixigo reported strong Q3 FY26 financial results with operating revenue rising 31% year-on-year to ₹317 crore, while net profit reached ₹24 crore. According to latest reports, the company is strategically positioning itself to capture a larger share of India's growing domestic travel market through enhanced AI integration. The online travel agency operates in a highly competitive landscape where MakeMyTrip holds over 50% market share, with Ixigo often competing for second position against players like Cleartrip and Goibibo. MakeMyTrip spends significantly more on marketing, allocating over $120 million in FY24 versus ixigo's roughly $18 million, highlighting the competitive spending gap in the industry.
Major Indian travel platforms are significantly expanding their AI capabilities to meet evolving user preferences. According to reports from Business Standard, Ixigo has rebuilt its app to integrate native AI for solving consumer inquiries across the platform. The company launched Tara (Travel Assistant and Recommendation Agent) on Wednesday as a multimodal AI-native assistant, offering conversational and intuitive travel search and bookings in English, Hindi, and Hinglish. As reported by Business Standard, MakeMyTrip (MMT) launched Myra 2.0 in May 2026, building upon its initial multilingual travel assistant launched in August 2025. Recent data from Skift Research reveals that 68% of travelers now use AI-powered tools during their booking journey, representing a dramatic increase from 23% just three years ago.
The upgraded Tara assistant now functions as a multimodal AI system capable of understanding and processing various forms of input including voice, text, images, screenshots, and contextual prompts. Travelers can now ask Tara questions such as "Find the cheapest weekend flights from Kolkata to Goa", "Book me a hotel near Connaught Place", "Which train reaches Mumbai before 8 AM?", and "Suggest a family-friendly itinerary for Thailand". The AI assistant provides intelligent responses using real-time travel data, predictive pricing models, and personalised travel recommendations. Unlike traditional chatbots that function as standalone API-based interfaces, Tara is deeply embedded into the app's core user experience. Users can interact with Tara through natural conversations, with a prompt like "Hi TARA, I forgot my anniversary, help me!" instantly triggering personalised getaway recommendations based on travel history, preferences, family context and past booking behaviour.
Ixigo's new AI-native platform introduces agentic travel experiences where AI agents perform critical travel tasks autonomously in the background. Key agentic capabilities include boarding pass delivery sent directly to travellers on WhatsApp with options to add to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, dynamic wallet updates that reflect real-time changes to flight timings or gate information, hotel coordination where AI agents verify room readiness ahead of check-in, flight monitoring that alerts users to delays or schedule changes, and refund management to help manage cancellation flows. The platform also introduces Trip Mode, a new built-in travel companion that consolidates all post-booking information into a single view, including boarding passes, terminal and gate details, real-time travel alerts, baggage belt updates, and contextual recommendations such as available lounges at departure terminals. As per Business Standard, MakeMyTrip has achieved significant user engagement with its AI assistant, reporting over 3 million conversations per quarter.
Beyond domestic market expansion, Ixigo is also expanding internationally, having acquired a 60% stake in Spain-based train ticketing platform Trenes for €12 million in February 2026. As reported by Business Standard, Ixigo's leadership believes the future of travel will be agent-led, with AI that can understand intent, take proactive actions, and assist travellers seamlessly before, during, and after their trips. Rajnish Kumar, Group Co-CEO, explained that "The new ixigo app has been rebuilt from the ground up as an AI-native travel platform - not by adding AI in patches, but by integrating it seamlessly across the entire experience." TARA is designed to understand intent naturally, from detailed requests such as "show me hotels in Dubai with an infinity pool and a view of the Burj Khalifa" to planning multi-city itineraries. TARA proactively assists users even when they are not actively using the app, continuously tracking flight schedules, managing cancellations, processing refunds, and providing real-time travel information.
