Airbnb to infuse AI into search, discovery and customer support

While Airbnb has been deliberate in rolling out AI features, CEO Brian Chesky announced on Friday that the company is now set to deeply integrate large language models into its platform. These new capabilities will assist users in discovering listings, planning trips, and help hosts manage their properties more effectively.

During the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, Chesky outlined a broader strategy to leverage large language models across customer discovery, support services, and internal engineering processes.

"We are creating an AI-native experience where the application doesn't merely perform searches; it understands you. It will assist guests in planning their entire journey, empower hosts to operate their businesses more successfully, and enable our company to function more efficiently at a larger scale," he explained.

In a related development, Airbnb confirmed it is testing a new functionality that allows users to search and inquire about properties and destinations using natural, conversational language.

Currently, the company employs an LLM-driven customer service bot for certain personalized communications. The upcoming AI search feature is anticipated to "develop into a more holistic and intuitive search experience that spans the entire travel journey."

When an analyst inquired about the potential for sponsored property placements within the AI search results, Chesky emphasized that the company's immediate priority is perfecting the design and user experience.

"AI search is currently active for a very small percentage of our user traffic. We are conducting extensive experiments. Over time, we plan to make AI search more conversational, integrate it beyond just trip planning, and, eventually, we will explore incorporating sponsored listings within that framework," Chesky stated, adding that Airbnb would consider designing an advertisement format that complements the conversational search flow.

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Chesky noted that Airbnb intends to leverage the AI expertise of its new Chief Technology Officer, Ahmad Al-Dahle—previously involved with Meta's Llama models—to utilize its vast repository of user identity and review data to enhance the app's usefulness.

Airbnb reported that its AI-powered customer support bot, launched in North America last year, now autonomously resolves one-third of customer issues without human assistance. Chesky added there are plans to allow customers to call the AI bot for support and to expand its language capabilities across all customer service channels.

"A year from now, if we succeed, a significantly larger portion of support tickets—more than 30%—will be handled by our AI service agent, in many more languages, matching all the languages where we currently have live agents. AI customer service will evolve beyond text chat to include voice support," he said.

The company is also focusing on boosting internal AI adoption. Airbnb mentioned that 80% of its engineers currently use AI tools, with a goal of reaching 100% utilization.

Airbnb announced stronger-than-anticipated fourth-quarter revenue of $2.78 billion, marking a 12% increase from the same period last year.