Brands
MakeMyTrip partners with OpenAI to boost AI-powered travel planning
Conversational AI now guides travellers from inspiration straight to booking
GURUGRAM: MakeMyTrip, India’s leading online travel company, has teamed up with OpenAI to bring a fresh twist to AI-driven travel planning. The collaboration integrates OpenAI’s APIs into MakeMyTrip’s app, making it easier than ever for travellers to move from chatting about dream trips to booking them.
The move centres around MakeMyTrip’s Myra interface, a GenAI trip planning assistant that now handles over 50,000 conversations a day in languages ranging from English and Hindi to Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. Myra helps travellers explore options, create itineraries and book flights, hotels and extras without the usual hassle of searching and filtering.
MakeMyTrip co-founder and group CEO Rajesh Magow said, “With OpenAI, we turn curiosity into confident decisions. When travellers start their journey through conversation, MakeMyTrip becomes a seamless extension of that discovery process. AI combined with our travel data makes it possible to deliver personalised, bookable options at scale.”
OpenAI managing director- international Oliver Jay added, “MakeMyTrip is showing how AI can make travel planning feel more like a conversation than a chore. Advanced AI isn’t just about back-end efficiencies, it’s about transforming the way travellers experience and engage with the platform.”
MakeMyTrip has long invested in AI across the travel lifecycle, from inspiration and discovery to booking and post-sales support. Nearly half of Myra’s queries now come from tier-2 and smaller cities, and voice interactions are booming outside metros, making AI travel assistance more accessible than ever.
With this partnership, MakeMyTrip is not just keeping up with AI trends, it’s aiming to lead the way, turning every traveller’s whim into a smooth, bookable adventure.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
