After a second-quarter earnings beat, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shared his ideas on the corporate’s AI technique, cautioning buyers that AI chatbots can’t but be considered the “new Google.” That’s, AI chatbots, whereas probably driving new results in the journey and providers enterprise, aren’t solely a alternative for the referrals that the dominant search engine brings.
A minimum of not right now.
“I believe we’re nonetheless sort of feeling out the house,” the exec instructed buyers on the Q2 earnings name. “The factor I need to warning is I don’t assume that AI brokers — I don’t assume we should always consider chatbots like Google — I don’t assume we should always consider them because the ‘new Google’ but.”
This, Chesky defined, is as a result of AI fashions aren’t “proprietary.”
“We additionally need to keep in mind that the mannequin powering ChatGPT will not be proprietary. It’s not unique to ChatGPT. We — Airbnb — also can use the API, and there are different fashions that we are able to use,” he stated.
Portray a broader image of the AI panorama, Chesky stated that along with chatbots and different AI brokers, there will probably be custom-built startups designed for particular functions, in addition to different incumbents which have made the shift to AI.
“One of many issues we’ve seen is it’s not sufficient to simply have … the perfect mannequin. You’ve gotten to have the ability to tune the mannequin and construct a {custom} interface for the suitable utility. And I believe that’s the important thing,” he stated.
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The corporate instructed buyers it’s going to look to reap the benefits of AI in quite a few methods.
Airbnb shared throughout the name that its AI customer support agent within the U.S. diminished the proportion of visitors contacting a human agent by 15%, for example. This was really more durable than tackling the lower-hanging fruit involving journey planning and inspiration, Chesky stated, as a result of AI brokers performing customer support can’t hallucinate. They’ve to have the ability to be correct and useful always.
Airbnb’s customer support agent was constructed utilizing 13 totally different fashions and skilled on tens of 1000’s of conversations, and is at present accessible in English within the U.S. This 12 months, Airbnb will roll it out to extra languages, and subsequent 12 months, it’s going to turn into extra personalised and agentic. Which means it might be capable to perceive if somebody reaches out to cancel a reservation; it might not solely be capable to inform them how to take action, however it might additionally do it for them. The agent might additionally assist plan and guide journeys.
Plus, AI will come to Airbnb’s search subsequent 12 months, the CEO stated.
Nonetheless, the corporate has not totally fleshed out its plans for working with third-party AI brokers, though it’s contemplating it. Customers nonetheless want an Airbnb account to make a reserving.
Due to this, Chesky doesn’t assume agentic AI would flip its enterprise right into a commodity, the best way that reserving flights has turn into. As an alternative, he sees AI as “probably attention-grabbing lead era” for the corporate.
“… I believe the important thing factor goes to be for us to guide and turn into the primary place for individuals to guide journey on Airbnb. So far as whether or not or not we combine with AI brokers, I believe that’s one thing that we’re actually open to,” he stated.
Airbnb beat analysts’ expectations within the quarter with income of $3.1 billion and earnings per share of $1.03, however the inventory dropped on its forecast of slower development within the second half of the 12 months.