I Built an AI to Help You Navigate JLF 2026

The Problem: 200 Events, 5 Days, One You

If you've ever attended the Jaipur Literature Festival, you know the feeling.

You download the schedule. You scroll through page after page of panels, conversations, book launches, and keynotes. Devdutt Pattanaik is speaking at the same time as that fiction panel you've been dying to attend. The poetry session you marked conflicts with three other things you want to see. And somewhere around event #147, your brain just... stops.

JLF 2026 has over 200 events across five days. That's roughly 40 sessions happening every single day, often 6-8 running simultaneously. The abundance is wonderful—and completely overwhelming.

I've tried the usual approaches. Colour-coded spreadsheets. Highlighting the PDF. Asking friends what they're attending. None of it scales. You end up either over-planning (and feeling stressed) or under-planning (and missing things you would have loved).

So I built something to help.

The Solution: An AI Festival Guide

What if you had a friend who had memorised the entire JLF programme? Someone who knew every speaker, every time slot, every venue—and could instantly answer questions like:

"What events feature Gurcharan Das?"
"I'm interested in mythology and Indian history—what should I see?"
"What's happening on Saturday afternoon?"
"I saved these 8 events—do any of them conflict?"

That's what this chatbot does. It's not a replacement for the joy of wandering into an unexpected session and being surprised. It's an enhancer of that serendipity.

Think of it as a concierge, not a controller.

Schedule browser showing day tabs and time slots — Browse by day and time slot—see what's happening at a glance

Who Is This For?

First-time attendees who feel paralysed by choice. Where do you even start with 200 events?

Returning visitors who want to discover new voices beyond the big names they already know.

The logistics-averse who love literature but hate spreadsheets. You want to read books, not manage schedules.

Groups and friends trying to coordinate. Share your saved schedule with a link and plan together.

What You Can Actually Do With It

The chatbot understands natural language. You don't need special commands—just ask like you'd ask a friend.

User asking: Give me publishing events related to Children's books — Ask in natural language—no special syntax needed

AI response with detailed recommendations for children's publishing events — Get thoughtful recommendations with context on why each event matters

It Remembers Context

The AI maintains conversation context. If you ask about children's publishing and then follow up with "And events about Manga?"—it understands you're still looking for related content and adjusts accordingly.

Follow-up conversation about Manga events — Follow-up questions work naturally—it remembers what you're interested in

Build Your Schedule

Click the ❤️ heart on any event to save it. Your saved events appear in a dedicated panel, organized by day. The tool automatically detects conflicts and analyzes your interests based on what you've saved.

My Schedule panel showing saved events organized by day with interest tags — Your personal schedule with interest analysis and conflict detection

The Tech Behind It

For those curious about how this works:

The AI: The chatbot uses Claude, an AI assistant built by Anthropic. When you ask a complex question—like "What should I attend if I'm interested in the intersection of literature and politics?"—Claude analyses all 200+ events, considers your phrasing and context, and generates a thoughtful recommendation.

Why AI works here: Festival schedules are exactly the kind of problem AI handles well. There's a lot of structured information (times, speakers, venues, categories) combined with unstructured questions (your interests, your constraints, your mood). AI excels at bridging that gap.

How the AI guide works: You ask a question, AI searches 200+ events, returns smart recommendations — The flow: Your question → AI analysis → Smart recommendations

Anyone can build this now: Ten years ago, building something like this would have required a team—designers, developers, data engineers. Today, one person with an idea and some persistence can ship a useful tool in weeks. I'm not a professional developer. I'm just someone who was frustrated by a scheduling problem and decided to solve it.

The Shift Is Already Here

Here's something I've noticed: many people in the literary world—especially writers—are dismissing generative AI. It's a fad. It's soulless. It's going to destroy creativity.

I understand the discomfort. But I think we're living through something seismic—possibly as significant as the printing press.

The printing press didn't kill storytelling. It transformed who could tell stories and who could access them. We're at a similar inflection point. No one knows exactly where this goes.

But one thing is certain: the old world no longer exists.

You can resist this shift, ignore it, or engage with it. I chose to engage—not by using AI to write, but by using it to build.

Try It Yourself

The JLF 2026 Schedule Builder is live and free to use. Sign in with Google to save your schedule across devices.

Launch JLF 2026 Guide

Or scan to open on your phone:

Important Disclaimer: This is NOT an official Jaipur Literature Festival website or tool. It's a personal experiment I built for friends and fellow festival-goers. The data is based on publicly available programme information. Use at your own discretion, and always verify with official JLF sources.