ixigo launches personal travel assistant 'ixibaba'

Travel search marketplace ixigo has launched an artificial intelligence chat-bot designed to simplify the lives of travelers 'ixibaba'.

ixibaba will provide quick, quirky answers to all travel planning and booking related queries. ixibaba will help Indian travelers find the best ways to plan their trip by conversing with them on topics across flights, hotels, buses, cabs, places to visit and vacation destinations.

Apart from using ixigo's proprietary meta-search engine to find where the cheapest travel deals are,

the chat-bot also covers weather, things to do in a city and even find offbeat adventure activities.

This development is in line with the advances in chat technology and customer interaction.

"ixibaba is a personal travel assistant that can help you with all your travel queries just like a knowledgeable friend would. With platforms such as Facebook messenger and Whatsapp reaching a critical mass of over a billion users, chat based information and commerce is bound to take off," said CEO and Co-Founder, Aloke Bajpai.

"We believe we are at the forefront of this evolution when it comes to travel," said CTO and Co-Founder, Rajnish Kumar.

"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. In tests with over 1000 users, we have seen a nearly 80 percent accuracy in recognizing travel related queries, and we expect this to continue improving," added Rajnish Kumar.

ixibaba has learnt from over 30 million data points across destinations, points of interest, routes, things to do and travel trivia from India and across the world. It will not only guide the customers but will also give you real time information such as the weather, travel routes, flight timings and train status.