Online travel portal MakeMyTrip will build core capabilities using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and will work with leading players to build those tools, founder and chairman Deep Kalra said on Tuesday.

“The generative (AI) model is heady, and what it can do to summarise the reviews we’re getting intelligently in a very easy to understand form to help us build content in a very interesting manner. So, we are working to build those core capabilities, and will be working with the leading players for that,” according to Kalra, who was speaking at the Times Network India Digital Fest.

He said technologies such as data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence have been “game changing” in terms of the features that MakeMyTrip has been able to build.

Also read | Startup funding winter a reality, going to be short & sharp: MakeMyTrip chairman

Internet giant Meta Inc is also “future focused” and thinking about XR (extended reality), said Sandhya Devanathan, India vice president at Meta.

“…we have announced a fund with MeitY and Ficci to train startups and developers, and we’ve invested $3 million in that,” Devanathan said. “So, while the larger macroeconomic situation is certainly grim, we remain really excited about India’s prospects.”

She said Meta was doubling down on its investment in short video-sharing app Reels, which was incidentally launched in India before its global rollout after Chinese short-video app TikTok was banned in the country.On whether the company would focus more on India-specific innovations, Devanathan said its partnership with JioMart was an example of the company’s commitment to building India-specific products.

“It’d be a fallacy to think that India will be immune to everything that’s happening globally,” Devanathan said. “But…I see a story of resilience in India, and I think that’s powered by a bunch of things – economic resilience, digital governance which is enabling inclusion for millions of people, (and) the very strong and robust startup ecosystem.”

Generative AI models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s BARD, which have taken the tech world by storm, are able to answer complex questions, write codes and generate content using large language models that take simple-text inputs for human-like responses.

ET reported on March 28, citing union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, that India could expect a “big announcement” on the Indian equivalent of ChatGPT in a few weeks.

Gerd Leonhard, futurist and a humanist who spoke at the event, said that India could be a leader in biotechnology (and) in climate technology. “Many people have said the next 100 unicorns – billion dollar companies – will all be in climate technology, because that’s a very big issue that we’re struggling with,” Leonhard said.

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