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 companies enterprise, aren’t totally a substitute for the referrals that the dominant search engine brings.
A minimum of not at the moment.
“I feel we’re nonetheless type of feeling out the house,” the exec advised traders on the Q2 earnings name. “The factor I need to warning is I don’t suppose that AI brokers — I don’t suppose we must always consider chatbots like Google — I don’t suppose we must always consider them because the ‘new Google’ but.”
This, Chesky defined, is as a result of AI fashions aren’t “proprietary.”
“We additionally must keep in mind that the mannequin powering ChatGPT shouldn’t be proprietary. It’s not unique to ChatGPT. We — Airbnb — can even use the API, and there are different fashions that we are able to use,” he mentioned.
Portray a broader image of the AI panorama, Chesky mentioned that along with chatbots and different AI brokers, there will likely be custom-built startups designed for particular purposes, in addition to different incumbents which have made the shift to AI.
“One of many issues we’ve observed is it’s not sufficient to simply have … one of the best mannequin. You might have to have the ability to tune the mannequin and construct a {custom} interface for the fitting utility. And I feel that’s the important thing,” he mentioned.
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The corporate advised traders it’s going to look to reap the benefits of AI in a variety of methods.
Airbnb shared throughout the name that its AI customer support agent within the U.S. decreased the share of friends contacting a human agent by 15%, as an example. This was really tougher than tackling the lower-hanging fruit involving journey planning and inspiration, Chesky mentioned, 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 totally different fashions and educated on tens of 1000’s of conversations, and is at present accessible in English within the U.S. This yr, Airbnb will roll it out to extra languages, and subsequent yr, it’s going to grow to be extra personalised and agentic. Which means it will be capable to perceive if somebody reaches out to cancel a reservation; it will not solely be capable to inform them how to take action, nevertheless 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 yr, the CEO mentioned.
Nonetheless, the corporate has not totally 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 suppose agentic AI would flip its enterprise right into a commodity, the best way that reserving flights has grow to be. As a substitute, he sees AI as “probably fascinating lead technology” for the corporate.
“… I feel the important thing factor goes to be for us to guide and grow to be the primary place for folks to e-book journey on Airbnb. So far as whether or not or not we combine with AI brokers, I feel that’s one thing that we’re definitely open to,” he mentioned.
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 development within the second half of the yr.
