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 doubtlessly driving new results in the journey and providers enterprise, aren’t totally a substitute for the referrals that the dominant search engine brings.
No less than not right now.
“I feel we’re nonetheless type of feeling out the house,” the exec advised 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 must keep in mind that the mannequin powering ChatGPT shouldn’t be proprietary. It’s not unique to ChatGPT. We — Airbnb — can even 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 only have … the very best mannequin. You might have to have the ability to tune the mannequin and construct a {custom} interface for the precise software. And I feel that’s the important thing,” he stated.
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The corporate advised buyers it’s going to look to reap the benefits of AI in a lot of 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%, as an 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 must be correct and useful always.
Airbnb’s customer support agent was constructed utilizing 13 completely different fashions and skilled on tens of 1000’s of conversations, and is at the moment obtainable in English within the U.S. This yr, Airbnb will roll it out to extra languages, and subsequent yr, it’s going to turn out to be extra customized and agentic. Meaning it could be capable of perceive if somebody reaches out to cancel a reservation; not solely would it not be capable of inform them how to take action, however it might additionally do it for them. The agent might additionally assist plan and e-book journeys.
Plus, AI will come to Airbnb’s search subsequent yr, the CEO stated.
Nevertheless, 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 out to be. As an alternative, he sees AI as “doubtlessly fascinating lead technology” for the corporate.
“I feel the important thing factor goes to be for us to guide and turn out to be the primary place for folks to e-book journey on Airbnb. So far as whether or not or not we combine with AI brokers, I feel 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 progress within the second half of the yr.