The travel industry has collected extensive travel and transportation data over the years, and founders use it to create all sorts of AI travel startups that they can think of. In fact, all the words in this sentence are links to new AI travel tools. Now, startups and current travel technology companies are taking part in a race to build one comprehensive tool that allows you to plan and manage every part of your trip.
Airial is one of the candidates that has led banks to banks in their ability to end-to-end mapping of the entire travel experience. At the surface level, there is how it works. To get started, you can enter the details of the trip you want to shoot. AI creates plans that include starting and ending points.
Choose the Instant Travel feature to quickly create travel plans that include flights, hotels and transportation across multiple cities. The platform also generates a daily itinerary for visiting interesting places and dine at restaurants. After you have looked into the plans, you can specify your preferences while planning or modifying them later.
The interface displays your overall travel plans. You can click on each phase to see the daily itinerary and where AI suggested to visit. Click on each item to see an overview, reviews, locations, and alternatives. Additionally, your assistant can answer questions about each specific location for you.
Airial also displays a map view of all the locations you visit that day, allowing you to measure the distance between points. It also provides details such as transfer times, waiting times at the train station, and day trips to nearby locations.
Additionally, you can add links to your blog, Tiktok, or reels to add items featured by the creator to your itinerary. Also, this tool surfaces Tiktok videos related to the city based on the prompts and details you provide, so if you don’t have any prior inspiration, you don’t need to look for it.
The company was founded by Indian university friends Archit Karandikar and Sanjeev Shenoy. Karandikar takes on a variety of engineering roles at Meta, Google and Waymo, working on using AI in its products. Shenoy worked for Meta, primarily on the team that developed Instagram reels.
The duo said they’ve always had a passion for travel, so they wanted to make something in the sector. They explained their aviation experience as they were working with your family’s travel agents.
“Almost every other company we know in the space is focused on creating a rough plan for you. In our model, we infer thoroughly the logistics part of your trip with a detailed focus. We integrate dozens of APIs, map flights and trains, take into account many parameters, and figure out how long they connect, and how long they connect. [determine the] Proximity of activities from the hotel,” Kalandikar told TechCrunch over the phone.
Karandikar said the value proposition for startup users is personalization and time savings. He said if you are a vegetarian, if you mention it to an AI tool, it just suggests a meal joint that’s right for you.
The company is based on paper training of AI models by DeepMind researchers called Alphageometry. According to the startup, this paper describes AI systems that solve geometry problems. At its heart, Aerial combines its inference methods with LLMS to build travel plans.
The startup raised $3 million in seed funding led by Montage Ventures, with participation from South Park Commons, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India) and individual investors from Meta, Uipath and Dropbox.
Daphne Che, principal of Montage Ventures, said the team’s technical understanding gives them an edge over the rest of the team.
“I think every consumer who wants to plan a trip will encounter problems. [too] Many options and variables to understand. It can be difficult for businesses that are simply using LLMS straight to solve these problems. Airial’s technology stack can infer over thousands of variables and keep your requirements in mind to figure out which spots and transport are best for you,” she said.
Airial says it has “tens of thousands of visitors each month,” and the company focuses on growing users rather than revenue. The company said it recently added features such as travel sharing and shared travel buildings. We have also added cars and buses as options for multi-city transit. Travel tools have added a more social aspect. This allows users to view and change the trips of friends.
Over the next few months, the company hopes to work on iOS and Android apps on the platform. The startup also wants to provide vertical searches for hotels, activities and influencer videos.
