Travel planning is entering a new phase. For years, discovery meant entering a destination and dates, then comparing fares across many options. AI is now opening up a more intent-led experience, where travellers can begin with their preferences, budget or the kind of trip they want, and let technology narrow the choices.
For Sukesh Shetty, Founder and CEO of Away.ai, the opportunity lies in making travel discovery more closely aligned with individual needs. “Travel is such a thing where loyalty can come. You just need to be very aligned to what the user wants,” he says. Before starting Away.ai, Shetty spent over a decade in India’s travel industry, including leading a B2B travel business that he scaled from zero to Rs 8,000 crore in annual bookings, giving him a close view of how fragmented travel supply is.
Away.ai’s approach starts with supply. Online and offline channels often access different fare categories and supplier networks, and Away.ai’s objective is to stitch these worlds together, bringing a wider range of travel supply closer to the traveller.
AI sits at the centre of this approach, but its role goes beyond planning itineraries. “We want AI to orchestrate supply,” says Shetty. Multiple agents work across the journey, understanding traveller preferences, evaluating available flights, engaging with suppliers and supporting the booking process. “We are training our agents for a very, very vertical scenario,” says Shetty. Built specifically for flight search rather than trained on the open web, they stay focused and reliable, reducing the chance of inaccurate results as they learn from each traveller.
The platform is also designed to make booking simpler. Rather than adding extra steps and choices along the way, Away.ai helps travellers complete their core booking first, and explore everything else afterward, at their own pace.
The early response has been encouraging. Since its June 2026 launch, and without any formal marketing, Away.ai has registered around 7,000 users, completed over 500 bookings, and seen close to 40% of users return.
“We are trying to be a true concierge,” says Shetty, describing the long-term ambition. As Away.ai brings together fragmented supply, AI-led orchestration and a sharper understanding of traveller intent, it is building toward an experience where travellers spend less time comparing and more time simply going.
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