18M travellers and counting - the Indian passenger wallet making 75M people smile
Digi Yatra is taking off across India with its seamless traveller app and portable verifiable credentials
Hi everyone, thanks for coming back to Customer Futures.
Each week I unpack the disruptive shifts around Empowerment Tech. Digital wallets, Personal AI and the future of the digital customer relationship.
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Customer Futures Meetup - London, 10th December
Are you curious about Personal AI, digital ID and digital wallets? Or are you already working on Empowerment Tech?
We’ll be at The Hoxton Hotel, Holborn in London (directions here) on Wednesday 10th of December - it would be great to see you.
Customer Futures Christmas Drinks - from 6pm
As usual, from 6pm we’re hosting our annual Christmas Drinks event. Casual drinks and conversation about all things digital wallets, digital ID and the empowered customer.
A New Meetup: ‘Trusted Agents’ - from 4pm
We’ll be gathering right before the evening drinks in the same bar, for a new afternoon meetup on TRUSTED AGENTS.
To talk about all things AI Agents, Agentic Commerce, Personal AI and the agentic opportunity for business.
We’ll also be joined by some special guests to talk about how to build AI trust. From AI risks and governance, to personalisation and delegation.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Hi folks,
Another Customer Futures Conversation for you.
This time it’s about 75M people smiling. 18M registered travellers. And 60% of regular passengers using their digital wallet to prove it’s them at the airport.
These are remarkable numbers for a digital wallet company. Especially one that only started building 5 years ago during Covid19.
It’s now one of the largest - if not the largest - wallet networks in the world, but you might not have been paying attention.
Hooked yet? I am.
It’s the Digi Yatra app in India, enabling seamless travel across the country’s airports. I first spoke with the CEO of the Digi Yatra Foundation in 2020. To discuss decentralised digital wallets for travellers, and specifically for ‘seamless travel’ during the pandemic.
I was blown away by his vision, where ‘your face becomes your boarding pass’. And where you no longer have to take your phone or travel documents out of your pocket to board the plane. Or indeed have to touch a kiosk, terminal or gate.
And all designed to be respectful with personal data. To be private, to be secure. Using standardised and portable verifiable credentials. And purging all data from airport systems after 24 hours.
So this week, we dive into the world of seamless travel and portable passenger data.
And to the world of the Digi Yatra Foundation. Unleashing portable passenger credentials, unlocking new passenger experiences, and building new levels of digital trust.
Now I know of, and have worked directly with, quite a few similar projects over the last few years. But none who have done it at country scale, and certainly not registering 18M wallets.
So meet Suresh. The man behind the Digi Yatra vision, and now CEO of the not-for-profit foundation making it happen.
We had a blast in this Customer Futures Conversation, where we talked about:
How the Digi Yatra project started (02:39)
Navigating COVID-19 (09:53)
Building a ‘Self Sovereign Identity’ Wallet (15:03)
Developing the wallet experience (20:06)
Building digital trust with passengers (25:25)
The next wave of traveller features (28:45)
Collaborating with IATA (33:09)
The vision beyond travel (43:41)
You can find the full recording here.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Stay tuned for more episodes coming soon.
There’s never been a more important time to shape the future of digital travel. So welcome back to the Customer Futures newsletter.
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing… stop, grab your headphones, and Let’s Go.
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Hey, great read as always, totally agre these numbers from India are wild and definitely point to the future of agentic commerce.