Brands
Dev Kakkad joins CloudTailor as head of consumer activation & brand partnership
Mumbai: Direct-to-consumer (D2C) fashion brand, CloudTailor has appointed Dev Kakkad as head of consumer activation and brand partnership.
His responsibilities will include identifying and defining the growth plan that will take the business to the next level and bring stakeholder groups together to identify and build impactful solutions, providing strategic marketing expertise and innovative expertise to successfully drive revenue and brand awareness for national and international venues.
Dev comes with a wealth of experience of over 10 years with the calibre to handle end-to-end customer acquisition, brand partnership, CRM/loyalty programme management, B2C marketing campaigns, and a complete range of operational functions. He has previously worked with Zee Entertainment Enterprises as a sales & marketing lead.
Speaking about his new position, Dev said, “I am immensely excited to join CloudTailor, and lead activation & brand partnership. As I step into this new role, my main objective will be to drive growth by exploring different avenues through omni channel initiatives. I believe my expertise in B2C marketing campaigns, brand partnership, and customer acquisition would benefit the brand and pave the way for future growth.”
Adding to this, Cloudtailor co-founder Mahesh Patel said, “To continue the customer acquisition journey and to meet CloudTailor’s massive growth ambition, I’m pleased to welcome Dev Kakkad to the team to lead activation and brand partnership. Dev comes with vast experience in marketing and has deep knowledge of how to build a strong customer acquisition channel and understand the customer’s needs. On the journey to make CloudTailor a household brand for every woman for their personalised fashion and tailoring, I’m confident that Dev will be a great asset to CloudTailor and will take activation and brand partnership to the next level.”
Brands
AI becomes key tool for Indian travellers, Agoda report finds
68 per cent plan to use AI for trips as 33 per cent already rely on it.
MUMBAI: Holiday planning is getting a software upgrade less “Where should we go?” and more “What does the algorithm say?” Indian travellers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to map their journeys, with new data from Agoda’s 2026 Travel Outlook Report suggesting that AI is fast becoming central to how trips are imagined, planned and booked.
While 33 per cent of respondents said they already use AI tools for travel planning, a far larger 68 per cent indicated they are likely to rely on it for their next trip pointing to a sharp acceleration in adoption in a market already comfortable with digital-first travel.
What travellers want from AI, however, goes well beyond basic search. The report shows 38 per cent are looking for recommendations on local attractions and activities, while 37 per cent expect personalised itineraries. Destination discovery remains a key use case at 29 per cent, with dining suggestions (23 per cent) and budget management (22 per cent) also emerging as practical applications.
The shift reflects a broader change in expectations AI is no longer a novelty but a planning companion expected to work across every stage of the journey, from inspiration to execution.
Trust levels appear to be keeping pace. Nearly 88 per cent of respondents said they either trust or feel neutral about AI-generated recommendations, including 53 per cent who expressed clear confidence. This builds on earlier trends, with Agoda’s 2025 survey showing nine in ten Indian travellers already using apps to book travel suggesting AI adoption is more evolution than disruption.
The company has been testing this appetite through initiatives such as its 2025 AI-powered Vacation Planner campaign, which generated customised itineraries and visuals based on user inputs, delivered with a layer of celebrity-led engagement.
For platforms like Agoda, which aggregates more than 6 million properties, over 130,000 flight routes and 300,000 travel activities, AI offers a way to navigate scale without overwhelming users turning abundance into relevance.
As AI continues to embed itself into everyday decision-making, India is emerging as a market where travel planning is not just going digital, but decisively intelligent.
