AI agents aren’t the ‘new Google,’ says Airbnb CEO

After a second-quarter earnings beat, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shared his thoughts on the company’s AI strategy, cautioning investors that AI chatbots can’t yet be thought of as the “new Google.” That is, AI chatbots, while potentially driving new leads to the travel and services business, aren’t entirely a replacement for the referrals that the dominant search engine brings.

At least not at this time.

“I think we’re still kind of feeling out the space,” the exec told investors on the Q2 earnings call. “The thing I want to caution is I don’t think that AI agents — I don’t think we should think of chatbots like Google — I don’t think we should think of them as the ‘new Google’ yet.”

This, Chesky explained, is because AI models aren’t “proprietary.”

“We also have to remember that the model powering ChatGPT is not proprietary. It’s not exclusive to ChatGPT. We — Airbnb — can also use the API, and there are other models that we can use,” he said.

Painting a broader picture of the AI landscape, Chesky said that in addition to chatbots and other AI agents, there will be custom-built startups designed for specific applications, as well as other incumbents that have made the shift to AI.

“One of the things we’ve noticed is it’s not enough to just have … the best model. You have to be able to tune the model and build a custom interface for the right application. And I think that’s the key,” he said.

The company told investors it will look to take advantage of AI in a number of ways.

Airbnb shared during the call that its AI customer service agent in the U.S. reduced the percentage of guests contacting a human agent by 15%, for instance. This was actually harder than tackling the lower-hanging fruit involving travel planning and inspiration, Chesky said, because AI agents performing customer service can’t hallucinate. They have to be able to be accurate and helpful at all times.

Airbnb’s customer service agent was built using 13 different models and trained on tens of thousands of conversations, and is currently available in English in the U.S. This year, Airbnb will roll it out to more languages, and next year, it will become more personalized and agentic. That means it would be able to understand if someone reaches out to cancel a reservation; it would not only be able to tell them how to do so, but it could also do it for them. The agent could also help plan and book trips.

Plus, AI will come to Airbnb’s search next year, the CEO said.

However, the company has not fully fleshed out its plans for working with third-party AI agents, although it’s considering it. Users still need an Airbnb account to make a booking.

Because of this, Chesky doesn’t think agentic AI would turn its business into a commodity, the way that booking flights has become. Instead, he sees AI as “potentially interesting lead generation” for the company.

“… I think the key thing is going to be for us to lead and become the first place for people to book travel on Airbnb. As far as whether or not we integrate with AI agents, I think that’s something that we’re certainly open to,” he said.

Airbnb beat analysts’ expectations in the quarter with revenue of $3.1 billion and earnings per share of $1.03, but the stock dropped on its forecast of slower growth in the second half of the year.