Ixigo rolls out AI-powered personal travel assistant ixibaba

Gurgaon-based Le Travenues Technology Pvt. Ltd, which runs travel search marketplace ixigo.com, has launched an artificial intelligence-powered personal travel assistant.

Called ixibaba, the chatbot will allow users to plan their trip by conversing with them on topics across flights, hotels, buses, cabs, places to visit and vacation destinations, the company said in a statement. It also covers weather, things to do in a city and assists in finding offbeat adventure activities.

"It took us one year to build ixibaba and it will continue evolving as it learns from real interactions with travelers, since we use artificial intelligence and deep-learning," said Rajnish Kumar, co-founder and CTO, ixigo. Kumar said that the chatbot recorded nearly 80% accuracy level in recognising travel-related queries in tests with about 1,000 users. "We expect this to continue improving," he said.

The company claims that ixibaba has learnt from over 30 million data points across destinations, points of interest, routes and travel trivia from India and across the world.

The marketplace has been expanding its offering in recent months. It launched a new feature on its cab booking app to allow users to book the nearest available cab by tapping a button on their phone without a stable Internet connection.

Last year, it introduced a new meta-search service for curated budget hotels called Super Value Hotels, which compares deals across branded budget hotel providers such as Oyo rooms, Wudstay, Zo Rooms, Vista Rooms as well as independent hotels in popular locations across India.

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