After earnings in the second quarter defeatCEO Airbnb, Brian Chesky, shared thoughts on the company's AI strategy, warning investors that Chatbots AI cannot be treated as “new Google” yet. This means that Chatbots AI, although they potentially direct new potential customers in the travel and services industry, are not completely a replacement for referrals that the dominant search engine brings.
At least not at the moment.
“I think we still feel space,” said the investor director about calling Q2. “I want to warn that I don't think AI agents – I don't think we think about chatbots such as Google – I don't think we think about them as” new Google “.
This, as Chesky explained, is because AI models are not “reserved”.
“We must also remember that the CHATGPT power model is not reserved. It is not exclusive to chatgpt. We – Airbnb – we can also use the API interface, and there are other models that we can use,” he said.
Painting a wider image of AI landscape, Chesky said that in addition to chatbots and other AI agents, they will be designed to order for specific applications, as well as other operators who have passed to AI.
“One of the things we noticed is that it is not enough … the best model. You must be able to tune the model and build a custom interface for the right application. And I think it's a key,” he said.
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The company told investors that it would try to use artificial intelligence in many ways.
Airbnb made available during the merger that his AI Customer Service Agent in the US reduced the percentage of guests contacting the human agent by 15%. It was in fact more difficult than the solution to lower hanging fruits including travel planning and inspiration, said Chesky, because AI agents performing customer service cannot hallucate. They must be accurate and helpful all the time.
The Airbnb customer service was built using 13 different models and trained in tens of thousands of conversations and is currently available in English in the USA this year, Airbnb will introduce it to more languages, and in next year it will become more personalized and aggressive. This means that he would be able to understand if someone would re -cancel the reservation; Not only would he be able to tell them how to do it, but it can also do it for them. The agent can also help in planning and booking.
Plus, AI will come to the search of Airbnb next year, said the general director.
However, the company has not fully developed its plans for cooperation with AI other companies, although it considers it. Users still need an Airbnb account to make a reservation.
For this reason, Chesky does not think that Agentic AI will turn its activity into goods, the way reservation flights have become. Instead, he considers AI as “potentially interesting generation of potential customers” for the company.
“I think that the key thing will be the lead and will become the first place where people could book travel to Airbnb. When it comes to whether we integrate with AI agents, I think that we are certainly open to it,” he said.
Airbnb has overcome the expectations of analysts, including a quarter with revenues of USD 3.1 billion and a profit per share of USD 1.03, but shares dropped for a forecast of slower growth in the second half of the year.
