TLDRs:
Contents
- Brian Chesky says AI chatbots like ChatGPT aren’t yet ready to replace Google’s role in online discovery.
- Customization and interface design are more important than simply using the most advanced AI model.
- Airbnb’s AI customer service tool has reduced human agent contacts by 15% in the U.S. market.
- The company plans to expand AI to more languages, travel planning, and booking automation by 2026.
Following a second-quarter earnings beat, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told investors that while AI is reshaping how companies interact with customers, it’s not ready to dethrone Google as the dominant gateway to the internet.
Speaking on the earnings call, Chesky stressed that AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, are powerful tools but remain “in the early stages” of development.
“I don’t think we should think of them as the ‘new Google’ yet,” Chesky said, noting that search engines still play a crucial role in referral traffic.
He emphasized that unlike Google’s proprietary systems, many AI models are accessible through public APIs, meaning companies like Airbnb can use them too.
Why Customization Matters More Than Raw Power
Chesky argued that simply having the “best model” isn’t enough to compete with established search giants. Instead, success will come from tuning AI systems to specific use cases and building interfaces that fit the application.
“One of the things we’ve noticed is it’s not enough to just have the best model,” he explained. “You have to be able to tune the model and build a custom interface for the right application.”
This, he believes, will be the real competitive differentiator in the AI-driven future.
Airbnb’s AI Agent Already Reducing Customer Service Load
The company’s in-house AI customer service tool, deployed in the United States, has already reduced the share of guests needing to speak to a human representative by 15%.
This system uses 13 different models and is trained on tens of thousands of real conversations.
According to Chesky, designing an AI that can handle customer service is more challenging than creating one for trip inspiration because “AI agents can’t hallucinate” in support scenarios, they must provide accurate and actionable responses.
Multilingual Support, Trip Planning, and Booking
Airbnb plans to roll out its AI service agent in more languages by the end of the year. By 2026, the platform expects its AI to be more “personalized and agentic,” meaning it will be able to handle full booking processes, from cancellations to trip planning, autonomously.
Chesky also confirmed AI integration into Airbnb’s search function next year, enhancing the way users find stays and experiences. While he is open to working with third-party AI agents, he stressed that Airbnb will keep bookings tied to user accounts to avoid commoditization.
Airbnb posted $3.1 billion in revenue and $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, surpassing analyst estimates, though shares dipped on forecasts of slower growth in the second half of the year.
