All right. Welcome to Activate Live at Mumbai Tech Week. We have Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO of MakeMyTrip with us for now. And we'll be talking to him about all things travel and AI and his experiences about building MakeMyTrip from scratch. So, Rajesh, MakeMyTrip is a very loved consumer brand. I've been a user directly and indirectly through portals like SmartBuy. But, for the people who might be hearing about it for the first time, how would you describe what MakeMyTrip does today to them? And how can they sort of rely on MakeMyTrip for the next travel inspirations?
Yeah. So, firstly, thank you. Thank you for having me. MakeMyTrip today, the way it has evolved over the years, I think it'd be fair to say that MakeMyTrip today is the destination for any Indian traveler when he or she is thinking about travel right from the first stage. And then, the product portfolio of MakeMyTrip goes literally covering everything possible that would be needed for the traveler, right? So from any mode of transport bookings to any mode of accommodation booking to visa assistance, the forex, the insurance, the travel insurance, the planning, the in-destination activities is the recent one that we launched. So, I think it'd be fair to say that from a consumer point of view, one-stop shop that you can come to MakeMyTrip and look at anything and everything that you want from the moment you start to think about travel. So, that I think is sort of our positioning to the market as well.
And the other interesting aspect of that in the context of today and specifically on core technology because we've often said that MakeMyTrip is a tech company that happens to be in travel. So, you have to lead technology from the front and that has been our endeavor. So, in today's context, obviously AI. So, what are we doing to leverage AI not necessarily on specific use cases which are plenty, you know, the conversational interface on the front end for the consumer, software development, customer service function. But we are looking at MakeMyTrip to transform itself into an AI native org. Right? And that's a massive mindset change. It is not necessarily just one of those incremental things to do. It is across the board if you have to drive and people start thinking about AI in every little function. And they start to realize that there is so much of benefit that they can have. It can make them more productive, more efficient, more agile. And that could be potentially the game changer.
Interesting. Interesting. When we look at existing consumer tech or consumer products, there are two shifts that these guys have to navigate from our vantage point. One of it is a new wave of consumption. A lot of Gen Z users coming to the internet for the first time discovering or getting inspiration from video first content platforms. And then there is an AI native way of either discovery or execution, right? So, what have been your learnings? How is the next gen of India thinking about their travel needs? What is MakeMyTrip thinking about and how are you guys thinking about placing your bets to sort of cater to that new form of demand?
Yeah, no, absolutely. It's a great question, by the way. So, when we were looking at our strategy for the next 3-5 years, just 2 years ago, this was exactly the center of the topic that we had from a consumer point of view. It's that how should we start to think about consumer behavior for future, keeping in mind different generations, right? So, whether it is Gen Z or millennials or the seniors, we are a platform and it's a bit of a challenge, by the way. It's not easy, right? We are a platform. We are catering to everyone. So, it's not that we are a platform dedicated to Gen Z and dedicated to millennials or dedicated to any particular consumer cohort, which makes the job really hard for you to be able to think about what is going to be your product strategy.
So, I think the answer lies in two ways, you know, one that of course you can't ignore any of these and you have to have full deep knowledge of how the consumer behavior is different, what do they like, what are the needs different, where do they go for inspiration, how do you catch them from an inspiration stage to your sale, how do you let's say for a repeat use case, how do you actually inspire yourself on the platform, and so on and so forth. So, one deep knowledge about every consumer cohort behavior, buying behavior, thinking behavior, and on the other hand, bring in personalization so deep that you are able to service everybody with the relevant content, right? Because I should be able to catch that person because I will have those signals available, or if I don't have those signals, I will ask on let's say on our Myra conversational interface for example, it is relatively easier. Or I will pick up surrogate signals etc. for me to be able to identify the person first and then start to service that request with very relevant high-quality content so that that person also gets satisfied, right?
I think the higher level of challenge or complexity comes in when you start to think on the design front that how should the platform look and feel should be because the Gen Z language of understanding or getting inspiration from a just a general look and feel standpoint could be different versus the others etc. So that is a bigger or a higher level of challenge. But you can still strike a balance, right? Which sort of appeals to everybody. And just then make sure that you do a good job on servicing the problem, you know, via your product which is more relevant, which is more suiting to your need and stuff. And I think that's the way we've been approaching. And the good thing is like I said, it's not necessarily only Gen Z. Gen Z is going to play an important part but it's not going to be only Gen Z, right? So there's going to be also millennials and they also between millennials and Gen Z also think differently. Right? So I think the success of the platform would be to keep understanding every consumer cohort at a scale deeply and then try to service.
Such great insights. As MakeMyTrip, do you have any early evidence of or are you worried about losing some of that top of the funnel intent to a conversational chat interface like GPT or Google?
Yeah, no, I think it's an interesting question and a lot of people have been talking about it and all that. If you ask me personally, at some level I actually see this opportunity. See, if you go back in history, even today, the OTAs in general they start from a point where a person has already made up his or her mind to do some kind of a booking, right? You come to the platform, you know where you want to go, you give the destination to from or whatever, and you get going.
I think AI is bringing an opportunity to now play the game top of the funnel. To solve for even discovery, to solve for even trip planning case. And how do I do it? Because one of the problems in the current consumer journey funnels used to be you're not asking too many questions. You're not asking any question actually, because you're saying, you know, make up your mind, come to me and tell me where you and then from there onwards I'll make it super convenient. Right? But now in conversational interface I can ask questions. Or the background knowledge graph and the artificial intelligence gives you capability and capturing of context, intent on the fly it gives you the ability to consume everything process everything and give a relevant answer. So, and if I don't fully understand it, I'll ask another question. So, that actually that is an opportunity. So, I see this as an opportunity.
See, ultimately from a consumer point of view, let us understand one thing. That travel is not off-the-shelf buying. A lot of the travel is actually very involved purchase. Right? Because at the end of the day you're planning a family trip. You want to be absolutely sure. And you want to not only see the content which is like a descriptive content, but you also want to see user reviews, right? For example. Right? So, you want to see and ask and get comfort around many things before you book. Right? So, and given the richness of our content that we have and the domain experience coming from the fact that we've been doing only this for so many years, I think it makes a difference.
Very good. Just to put you on the spot, the island that all of us were last weekend, did you use MakeMyTrip to sort of plan your trip?
