AI adoption is unfolding right now, and India has emerged as one of the largest consumer bases for conversational AI and the pace of change has been incredibly rapid, which is only going to accelerate, said Raj Rishi Singh, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Business Officer of MakeMyTrip, during a captivating fireside chat at the PitchCMO Summit with Vivek Malhotra, Group Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Consumer Revenue & Enterprise Strategy at India Today Group.
Their discussion on Marketing 2.0 explored the transformative forces of technology, data, and AI, unraveling how these elements are redefining marketing strategies and the evolving role of a CMO in a data-driven era.
Reflecting on MakeMyTrip’s 25-year journey, Singh traced the evolution from the nascent days of desktop internet, which took 16 years to mature, to the mobile revolution that reshaped consumer behavior in just 12-13 years.
Today, AI is driving change at an unprecedented pace, with ChatGPT boasting 800 million users globally, 14% of whom are in India, positioning the country as a leader in conversational AI adoption, he said.
Looking to the future, Singh cited Google’s projection of achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) by 2030, envisioning a world where an AGI agent might anticipate a consumer’s desire for a chilled Pepsi and order it seamlessly, shifting marketing from reactive to predictive engagement.
Singh explained how the company moved from a transactional to a consumer-centric model, leveraging insights from 100 million quarterly unique visitors and 40 million annual air travelers in India.
“We realized we have cumulative information about consumers. Why spend on external marketing when they’re leaving signals on our app?” Singh noted, highlighting investments in data engines, Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), and experience hubs. Yet, he admitted, “Have we got it right? No. But we’re constantly investing in understanding the underlying technology.”
Malhotra questioned the limits of hyper-personalization, prompting Singh to distinguish between “insightful personalization” and excessive customization. He illustrated with a hotel scenario: a guest delighted by a proactively offered Diet Pepsi at 9 p.m. might be frustrated if the hotel assumes a 9 p.m. check-in and delays room preparation for an earlier arrival, resulting in “uninsightful personalization.”
Singh emphasized purposeful personalization, stating, “Do it with insight, not just for fashion.” He outlined two challenges: cost, as each data query incurs cloud computing expenses, and quality, as scaling AI-generated content—like a million unique messages—demands rigorous checks. His directive is clear: “Hyper-personalize only when required, and ensure it’s meaningful.”
Redefining the CMO’s role, Singh described modern marketing as a “physics discipline” rooted in first-principles thinking, moving away from traditional focuses on brand love and psychology. “It’s about catching consumer intent at the lowest cost. Every outreach costs around 200 rupees in India. How do we maximize impact with minimal impressions?” he explained, underscoring the need for efficiency and technical fluency in tools like LLMs and agentic flows.
“If you can’t contribute directly to business, this isn’t the right environment for you,” he said. Singh elaborated, “We used to measure transactions—flights, hotels. Now we focus on the consumer’s entire journey: inspiration, discovery, planning, and booking.”
MakeMyTrip uses data signals to tailor recommendations, suggesting affordable destinations like Jaipur over Italy for less affluent consumers, and employs agentic AI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to create seamless, conversational booking experiences.
Responding to an audience question on automation versus intelligence, Singh clarified, “Automation aids intelligence, not vice versa.”
He cited MakeMyTrip’s use of bots to address high frustration scores on the app, ensuring automation serves a purpose, but cautioned against overuse, which could confuse consumers.
On marketing budgets, Singh revealed that 25-30% of MakeMyTrip’s spend targets backend technology upgrades to combat “technology debt,” with a desire to invest more despite P&L constraints.
He noted rising ad costs due to market consolidation, with 70% of global ad spend concentrated among four platforms and Indian mergers like Jio and Star driving inflation
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