Trust Becomes The Bigger Challenge
Artificial intelligence is beginning to move beyond travel search, recommendations and itinerary planning, with startups exploring whether AI can eventually take responsibility for completing bookings on behalf of travellers. Away.ai is positioning itself in this emerging segment by attempting to combine automated travel search with the negotiation capabilities traditionally associated with offline travel agents.
The platform’s founder, Sukesh Shetty, believes there remains a significant gap between finding a travel option online and actually securing the best possible booking terms. His view is shaped by nearly a decade spent in Cleartrip’s B2B and corporate travel business, where he observed offline agents sometimes outperforming technology platforms despite having access to fewer digital tools.
According to Shetty, the difference often came down to negotiation. An experienced travel agent could call a supplier, negotiate a lower fee, secure more flexible cancellation conditions or request additional benefits that were not visible on a conventional comparison screen.
That experience became the foundation for Away.ai.
The company is attempting to build an AI system that can negotiate with travel suppliers before completing a transaction. Rather than limiting travellers to publicly displayed fares, the platform works with a network of more than 500 offline travel suppliers and seeks better terms before booking and paying on behalf of the customer.
This represents a different approach from conventional online travel platforms, which generally focus on displaying available inventory and allowing customers to choose from the listed options.
Shetty describes the conventional model as primarily a retrieval problem: platforms retrieve available fares, present them to consumers and leave travellers to make the final decision. Away.ai, by contrast, aims to make the AI an active participant in the transaction.
The distinction is particularly relevant in India, where offline travel agents continue to account for a sizeable share of bookings. Shetty estimates that around 35% to 46% of Indian travel bookings still pass through offline agents, suggesting that a substantial portion of the market has not been fully captured by online platforms.
The company also sees a technology-side opportunity. According to research cited by Away.ai, only a small proportion of travel companies have systems capable of allowing AI agents to transact directly rather than merely search their inventory. That limitation could become increasingly important as consumers become more comfortable delegating routine purchasing decisions to AI systems.
Away.ai’s proposition is therefore built around negotiation as much as discovery. Its AI can seek improved cancellation terms, request fee waivers or negotiate additional baggage instead of automatically accepting the first listed conditions.
The company says it does not promote a universal savings figure because the outcome depends on factors such as destination, travel dates, supplier and fare type. Instead, it focuses on the specific value achieved in an individual transaction.
Another component of the platform is transparency around booking flexibility. Travellers can see cancellation and date-change conditions before committing, while the company says it does not charge a convenience or booking fee across its channels.
However, technology is only one part of the challenge. Trust could prove to be the bigger hurdle for AI-powered transaction platforms.
Travel consumers may be comfortable using AI to research destinations, compare options or answer questions while remaining reluctant to give an AI system authority over a purchase involving substantial amounts of money. Industry research cited in the report indicates a major gap between confidence in AI-generated travel information and willingness to let AI actually make bookings.
Shetty says Away.ai’s early experience suggests that trust develops gradually. Travellers are more likely to start by giving the system responsibility for relatively small or flexible transactions before allowing it to handle larger and more expensive bookings.
That pattern has influenced the company’s product development, with reliability and transparency becoming important parts of the customer experience.
Away.ai’s early traction has also provided insights into India’s changing travel market. The company says its user base includes travellers from non-metro cities, reflecting the broader expansion of India’s outbound travel market beyond major metropolitan centres.
According to the TravClan Outbound Index cited by the company, 63% of India’s outbound international travellers come from non-metro cities, including locations such as Indore, Lucknow, Coimbatore and Surat. Away.ai says similar patterns are visible among its early users.
The startup’s initial scale remains modest. Its six-member team completed more than 100 bookings during its first month, but Shetty argues that the early transactions are valuable primarily because they demonstrate how consumers respond to AI taking increasingly active roles in travel purchases.
The opportunity is developing against the backdrop of a growing Indian online travel market. Industry estimates cited by the company point to continued expansion in online travel spending over the coming years, while brokerage expectations suggest that online travel agencies could capture a substantially larger share of bookings.
For Away.ai, however, the opportunity is not simply about adding another AI chatbot or recommendation engine to an existing travel platform.
The company’s broader ambition is to create an AI travel agent capable of understanding a traveller’s requirements, negotiating with suppliers, securing appropriate terms and completing the transaction.
That proposition could potentially bring some of the advantages of India’s traditional travel-agent ecosystem into a digital environment. Human agents have historically differentiated themselves not only through access to inventory but also through relationships with suppliers and their ability to negotiate when standard booking options do not meet a customer’s needs.
Away.ai is attempting to automate that process.
The company’s next phase involves expanding its supplier network across India on a city-by-city basis. The objective is to connect the AI with more of the country’s fragmented offline travel ecosystem and increase the range of transactions it can handle.
The larger question, however, will be whether travellers are willing to move from using AI as an adviser to treating it as an agent.
As AI becomes increasingly capable of taking actions rather than simply generating answers, travel could become an important testing ground for this transition. Search and recommendations may be the first stage, but platforms such as Away.ai are betting that the more consequential opportunity lies in allowing AI to negotiate, book and transact on behalf of consumers.
