August 7, 2025
5 min read
By Larry Dignan
Airbnb leverages 13 AI models to revolutionize customer service and plans to expand AI tools, aiming to become an AI-native travel app.
Airbnb’s AI Strategy: Transforming Customer Service and Travel Planning with AI-Native Innovation
Airbnb has launched an AI agent built on 13 different models for customer service in its app and plans to add more AI tools in the quarters to come. The goal: transform the Airbnb app into one that is AI native. CEO Brian Chesky said on Airbnb's second quarter conference call that the company's move into complementary services paid off with better-than-expected results. Airbnb has retooled its tech stack and is now rolling out improvements to its app and services at a faster pace. "We are massively ramping up development of product development pace at Airbnb. We do these typically biannual releases, but we are now iterating very, very quick even between these releases," said Chesky. Airbnb is navigating multiple shifts: expanding into complementary markets including home services and experiences, shifting marketing focus more toward social media over search and TV, and optimizing everything from pricing to customer service as it expands globally. In the second quarter, Airbnb delivered strong metrics, expanding its AI-powered customer service agent to 100% of US users and scaling new offerings. Travel demand accelerated from April to July despite an uncertain economy. Airbnb reported second quarter net income of $642 million on revenue of $3.1 billion, up 13% year-over-year. As for the outlook, Airbnb expects revenue growth of 8% to 10% in the third quarter with stable nights and seats booked compared to the second quarter. However, margins are expected to be lower due to investments in new markets including Airbnb Services and Airbnb Experiences. Additionally, Airbnb redesigned its app to consolidate bookings across services in one place and has been continuously optimizing since the May launch. This rapid product cadence is essential as Airbnb executes its AI strategy.Airbnb’s AI Strategy Highlights
Start with the Hardest Problem
Chesky explained that while most AI efforts in travel focus on trip planning and inspiration, Airbnb chose customer service as its AI use case because it is "the hardest problem because the stakes are high, you need to answer this quickly and the risk of hallucination is very high." "You cannot have a high hallucination rate. And when people are locked out, they want to cancel reservation, they need help, you need to be accurate. So what we've done is build a custom agent built on 13 different models tuned off tens of thousands of conversations. We rolled this out throughout the United States in English. This has reduced 15% of people needing to contact a human agent when they interact instead with this AI agent," Chesky said. The plan is to expand this customer service agent to more languages.Increase Personalization and Context
The AI agent will become "more personalized and more agentic" over the next year. It will not only tell users how to cancel reservations but also know which reservation to cancel, perform the cancellation, and assist with searching, planning, and booking the next trip.Expand AI into Travel Search and Planning
Airbnb plans to leverage AI throughout its app and use cases, including expanding into hotel bookings, especially boutique hotels, bed and breakfasts, and independent properties in Europe.Become AI Native
Chesky emphasized that Airbnb aims to become an AI-native app. Currently, the top 50 apps on Apple's App Store are mostly not AI native, with ChatGPT being a notable exception. "You've got basically AI apps and kind of non-AI native apps. Airbnb would be a non-AI native application. Over the next couple of years, I believe every one of those top 50 slots will be AI apps—either start-ups or incumbents that transform into being AI native apps. At Airbnb, we are transitioning from a pre-generative AI app to an AI native app. We're starting with customer service and bringing AI into travel planning. So it's really setting the stage."Stay Focused and Strategic
Chesky cautioned that AI chatbots and agents are not yet replacements for Google or one-stop solutions. He expects specialized AI models tailored to specific applications rather than a single dominant chatbot. "ChatGPT is a great product, but the approach isn't exclusive to OpenAI. Airbnb can also use the API, and there are other models we can use. In the coming years, large AI models will handle more tasks, but people won't often go to one chatbot. Start-ups will build custom AI for specific applications, and incumbents will shift to AI. It's not enough to have the best model; you have to tune it and build a custom interface for the right application." Chesky also noted that Airbnb's platform requires verified accounts and messaging, making it unlikely that third-party AI agents will book on users' behalf as a commodity. However, such agents could serve as lead generators for Airbnb.Source: Originally published at Constellation Research on August 7, 2025.