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Airbnb says it\u2019s poised to roll out AI technology \u2014 but not in the way consumers may have initially wanted.<\/p>\n
Instead of offering tools to help travelers plan or book their trips with the help of AI agents, Airbnb is planning to first introduce AI to its customer support system. This update will roll out later this summer, the company told investors during its Q4 2024 earnings call on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Explained Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, AI can do \u201can incredible job\u201d for customer service as it can speak any language and understand thousands of pages of documents. To start, the AI will work as a customer service agent but its capabilities will expand over time.<\/p>\n
While companies like OpenAI<\/a>, Google<\/a>, and others<\/a> are working on AI agents \u2014 or AI software that can perform a series of tasks on your behalf \u2014 Chesky believes the technology is still too early to be of use to Airbnb just yet. However, he believes that eventually, AI will have a \u201cprofound impact on travel,\u201d even if nothing has changed for the major travel platforms as of now.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s what I think about AI. I think it\u2019s still really early,\u201d Chesky said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably similar to\u2026 the mid-to-late \u201990s for the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that other companies were working on integrations around trip planning, but that he thinks it\u2019s too soon for AI trip planning.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s quite [a] bit ready for prime time,\u201d the CEO added.<\/p>\n As AI technology continues to develop, Airbnb will expand the AI-powered customer service agent to be a part of Airbnb\u2019s search and, at some point much further down the road, it will also become a \u201ctravel and living concierge,\u201d Chesky said. <\/p>\n In addition to customer service, the company reported some small productivity gains from using AI internally for engineering purposes. But here, too, the executive advised caution, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s flowing to a fundamental step-change in productivity yet.\u201d<\/p>\n In a few years, those gains could reach some sort of \u201cmedium-term\u201d impact, Chesky noted, like a 30% increase in technology and engineering productivity.<\/p>\n Airbnb didn\u2019t say if its use of AI would impact headcount, but CFO Ellie Mertz hinted towards greater efficiencies possible in the realm of customer service, in particular.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of \u201925 and the outlook there, I would say, there\u2019s incremental opportunities across our variable costs, so areas like payment processing and customer service opportunities to just be, frankly, a little bit more efficient and to deliver some margin expansion there,\u201d Mertz told investors.<\/p>\n Airbnb reported strong earnings in Q4 that saw shares pop by 15%<\/a> after beating on both earnings and revenue. The company pulled in $2.48 billion in revenue in the quarter, above estimates of $2.42 billion, and earnings per share of 73 cents, above the 58 cents expected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n