After a second-quarter earnings beat, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shared his ideas on the corporate’s AI technique, cautioning traders that AI chatbots can’t but be regarded as the “new Google.” That’s, AI chatbots, whereas probably driving new results in the journey and providers enterprise, aren’t solely a substitute for the referrals that the dominant search engine brings.

At the least not right now.

“I believe we’re nonetheless type of feeling out the area,” the exec informed traders on the Q2 earnings name. “The factor I wish to warning is I don’t assume that AI brokers — I don’t assume we should always consider chatbots like Google — I don’t assume we should always consider them because the ‘new Google’ but.”

This, Chesky defined, is as a result of AI fashions aren’t “proprietary.”

“We additionally need to keep in mind that the mannequin powering ChatGPT just isn’t proprietary. It’s not unique to ChatGPT. We — Airbnb — also can use the API, and there are different fashions that we are able to use,” he stated.

Portray a broader image of the AI panorama, Chesky stated that along with chatbots and different AI brokers, there shall be custom-built startups designed for particular functions, in addition to different incumbents which have made the shift to AI.

“One of many issues we’ve seen is it’s not sufficient to only have … the very best mannequin. You might have to have the ability to tune the mannequin and construct a {custom} interface for the correct utility. And I believe that’s the important thing,” he stated.

The corporate informed traders it’ll look to make the most of AI in quite a few methods.

Airbnb shared through the name that its AI customer support agent within the U.S. lowered the share of friends contacting a human agent by 15%, as an example. This was truly tougher than tackling the lower-hanging fruit involving journey planning and inspiration, Chesky stated, as a result of AI brokers performing customer support can’t hallucinate. They’ve to have the ability to be correct and useful always.

Airbnb’s customer support agent was constructed utilizing 13 completely different fashions and educated on tens of 1000’s of conversations, and is at present accessible in English within the U.S. This 12 months, Airbnb will roll it out to extra languages, and subsequent 12 months, it’ll grow to be extra personalised and agentic. Which means it might have the ability to perceive if somebody reaches out to cancel a reservation; it might not solely have the ability to inform them how to take action, however it may additionally do it for them. The agent may additionally assist plan and e-book journeys.

Plus, AI will come to Airbnb’s search subsequent 12 months, the CEO stated.

Nonetheless, the corporate has not absolutely fleshed out its plans for working with third-party AI brokers, though it’s contemplating it. Customers nonetheless want an Airbnb account to make a reserving.

Due to this, Chesky doesn’t assume agentic AI would flip its enterprise right into a commodity, the best way that reserving flights has grow to be. As an alternative, he sees AI as “probably attention-grabbing lead era” for the corporate.

“… I believe the important thing factor goes to be for us to guide and grow to be the primary place for individuals to e-book journey on Airbnb. So far as whether or not or not we combine with AI brokers, I believe that’s one thing that we’re definitely open to,” he stated.

Airbnb beat analysts’ expectations within the quarter with income of $3.1 billion and earnings per share of $1.03, however the inventory dropped on its forecast of slower progress within the second half of the 12 months.