August 7, 2025
5 min read
Sarah Perez
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says AI chatbots aren’t a replacement for Google yet, highlighting AI’s evolving role in travel and customer service.
After a strong second-quarter earnings beat, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shared insights on the company’s evolving AI strategy, cautioning investors against viewing AI chatbots as the "new Google." Chesky explained that while AI chatbots have potential to drive new leads in travel and services, they are not yet a full replacement for the referrals and traffic generated by dominant search engines.
"I think we’re still kind of feeling out the space," Chesky said during Airbnb’s 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."
One key reason for this, he noted, is that the AI models powering popular chatbots like ChatGPT are not proprietary. "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," Chesky said.
Looking at the broader AI landscape, Chesky highlighted that success will come not just from having the best AI model but from tuning it and building custom interfaces tailored to specific applications.
"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 explained.
Airbnb is already leveraging AI in customer service. The company shared that its AI customer service agent in the U.S. has reduced the percentage of guests needing to contact a human agent by 15%. Chesky noted that building an AI agent for customer service was more challenging than for travel planning because the AI must be accurate and helpful without hallucinating.
The AI customer service agent was developed using 13 different models and trained on tens of thousands of conversations. Currently available in English in the U.S., Airbnb plans to expand it to more languages this year and make it more personalized and agentic next year. This means the AI could handle tasks such as canceling reservations on behalf of guests or helping plan and book trips.
AI will also be integrated into Airbnb’s search functionality next year, Chesky said.
Regarding third-party AI agents, Airbnb has not finalized plans but is open to integration. Users still need an Airbnb account to complete bookings.
Chesky emphasized that AI is unlikely to commoditize Airbnb’s business, unlike flight booking, but could serve as an interesting lead generation channel.
"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 reported revenue of $3.1 billion and earnings per share of $1.03 for the quarter, beating analyst expectations. However, the stock dropped following a forecast of slower growth in the second half of the year.
Source: AI agents aren’t the ‘new Google,’ says Airbnb CEO - Yahoo Finance
Source: AI agents aren’t the ‘new Google,’ says Airbnb CEO - Yahoo Finance