Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said AI chatbots aren’t the “new Google” yet. He warned investors on the Q2 earnings call that AI agents won’t fully replace search engines for driving traffic any time soon.
Chesky stressed that AI models powering tools like ChatGPT aren’t proprietary. Airbnb can use the same APIs others do, so exclusivity isn’t in play.
Brian Chesky stated:
“I think we’re still kind of feeling out the space,”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Airbnb’s AI-powered customer service bot in the U.S. cut guest calls to humans by 15%. Chesky says it’s tougher than travel planning because the AI can’t hallucinate—it has to be reliably accurate.
The AI agent uses 13 models, trained on tens of thousands of conversations. It’s currently English-only in the U.S. Rollouts in more languages are coming this year. Next year it’ll get smarter and more agentic: it could cancel bookings or book trips for users.
AI search features will arrive on Airbnb next year. Chesky didn’t confirm full plans for third-party AI agents, though the company is open to them. Users still need an Airbnb account to book.
Chesky thinks AI won’t commoditize Airbnb like it has flights. Instead, AI could drive new leads and help Airbnb become the go-to travel booking spot.
Airbnb beat Q2 estimates with $3.1 billion revenue and $1.03 EPS. Shares fell after it forecast slower growth in the second half of 2025.
