After beating Q2 earnings expectations, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky weighed in on the company’s AI roadmap, cautioning that AI chatbots shouldn’t yet be seen as a “new Google.” While AI can help drive traffic and improve services, it hasn’t reached the scale or reliability of the world’s dominant search engine, at least not yet.
“We’re still feeling out the space,” Chesky said on Airbnb’s earnings call. “We shouldn’t think of chatbots as Google replacements just yet.”
He also emphasized that large language models (LLMs) aren’t exclusive. “The model powering ChatGPT is not proprietary,” Chesky noted. “We can use the same APIs, and there are many other models available to us.”
Looking at the broader landscape, Chesky said AI’s future lies not only in general chatbots but in highly customized startups and purpose-built tools. “It’s not enough to just have the best model. You have to tune it and build the right interface for each use case,” he said.
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Airbnb said it’s already applying AI in customer service, noting that its U.S.-based AI support agent has reduced human contact rates by 15%. This use case, Chesky explained, was even harder to build than travel planning tools, because “AI in support can’t hallucinate; it has to be accurate every time.”
The company’s AI support agent was built using 13 models and trained on tens of thousands of conversations. It currently operates in English and will expand to other languages this year. Next year, it will evolve to become more personalized and action-oriented, meaning it could not only explain how to cancel a booking, but actually do it for the user. It may even assist with booking entire trips.
Airbnb also plans to bring AI to its core search function in 2026.
As for third-party AI agents, Chesky said Airbnb is exploring integration but isn’t rushing it. Currently, users still need an Airbnb account to book anything, which keeps the experience proprietary and controlled.
This, he argued, helps Airbnb avoid becoming commoditized like flight booking platforms. Instead, AI is “potentially interesting lead generation” for its business.
“Our goal is to remain the first place people come to book travel,” he said. “We’re definitely open to integrations, but we want to lead.”
Airbnb posted $3.1 billion in revenue and earnings of $1.03 per share in Q2, beating estimates but shares dipped slightly due to projected slower growth in the latter half of 2025.
