Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shared his thoughts on AI chatbots, cautioning investors that AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity can’t yet be considered the “new Google”, which remains a dominant gateway to the internet.
Speaking at the company’s second-quarter earnings call for FY26, Chesky acknowledged the potential of AI but also noted that the technology is still developing and will take a lot of time until it is capable of leading.
Why is AI not yet ready to replace Google?
Speaking of AI chatbots, the CEO told investors, “I don’t think we should think of them as the ‘new Google’ yet.” He further added, “I think we’re still kind of feeling out of space.”
Chesky also emphasised that while AI chatbots are powerful tools to work around customer service and personalisation, they aren’t yet fully positioned to become a replacement for referrals that the dominant search engine Google brings.
He also reminded people that AI models that power chatbots like ChatGPT are not proprietary. “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,” he said.
He also mentioned that the success with AI depends on building a custom interface and fine-tuning the model for the right application instead of just focusing on having the best model.
How is Airbnb taking advantage of AI?
Airbnb shared during the call that its AI customer service agent in the United States reduced the percentage of guests contacting a human agent by almost 15%.
The CEO revealed that Airbnb has also deployed a customer service agent that was built using 13 different models and trained on tens of thousands of conversations. This provision is currently available in English in the US.
This year, Airbnb will roll it out to more languages, and by next year, it is expected to become more personalised and independent. This means that it will be able to understand if someone needs assistance cancelling a reservation, for which the bot will not only be able to tell them how to do it but also do it for them. The bot will also be capable of helping customers plan and book trips.
Chesky also acknowledged that AI chatbots are definitely transforming how companies react with customers but he believes that it is not enough as the AI agents are enhancers and not replacements at least for now.
