News

Yango Ride Introduces In-Chat Trip Planning In ChatGPT

Users in the UAE and 25 more countries can check fares, routes and ETAs inside the popular chat platform as transport apps test AI-led customer access.

Published

5 months ago

April 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

Yango

Yango Ride has launched an app inside ChatGPT, letting users in the UAE and more than 25 other markets plan trips and move toward booking without ever leaving the chat window.

The rollout spans Yango markets across the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Latin America. It’s an early signal that ride-hailing groups see AI assistants as a new front door for everyday services.

Users can check the exact fare for a route, compare journey times, view the trip ETA and see how long a driver would take to arrive. The tool also suggests pickup points aimed at cutting wait times. When ready to book, users are redirected to the Yango app or web version to complete the ride.

The feature is available through ChatGPT on web, Android and iOS. Yango said it uses live traffic data and routing systems that refresh estimates as road conditions change.

The timing matters in the UAE, where public and private sectors have tied growth plans to AI under the National AI Strategy 2031. App-based mobility is also growing. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority says shared services, including on-demand ride-hailing, rose from 7.5% to 9% of total transport usage between 2024 and 2025.

That leaves room for a simpler model: users ask an AI assistant for transport while planning the rest of the day in the same conversation. For tourists and business travelers, fewer app switches may be the real selling point.

Also Read: Basatne Debuts ORBT Platform For Digital Refunds In UAE

In a recent press release, Yango said it plans to expand its ChatGPT presence beyond ride-hailing into delivery, public transport and food ordering.

The recent moves by Yango are part of a wider shift, as platforms seek placement inside generative AI products before those interfaces become a default layer for search, booking and payments.

Yango Ride is available in the ChatGPT app store by following this link.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

1 week ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.