Airbnb plans to integrate AI across search and support

Airbnb plans to integrate large language models (LLMs)—the software models that power conversational artificial intelligence—into its application for search, discovery, support, and engineering. Speaking on Friday during the company’s fourth-quarter conference call, CEO Brian Chesky outlined a shift toward what he described as an “AI-native” experience, meaning software designed with AI as a core component. “We are building an AI-native experience where the app does not just search for you. It knows you. It will help guests plan their entire trip, help hosts better run their businesses, and help the company operate more efficiently at scale,” Chesky said.

The company is expanding its use of AI both internally and for customer service. Airbnb’s AI-powered customer support bot, which launched in North America last year, already handles a third of customer problems without human intervention. Chesky stated that the company plans to expand these capabilities further:

• Engineering adoption: Currently, 80% of Airbnb engineers use AI tools, with an internal goal of reaching 100% adoption.
• Support automation: Airbnb plans to expand AI customer support to include voice capabilities. Chesky stated that if the company is successful, significantly more than 30% of tickets will be handled by an AI customer service agent a year from now, expanding from chat to voice and covering all languages where Airbnb currently has live agents.

In addition to engineering and support updates, the company is testing new user-facing features. Airbnb is testing a new feature that allows natural language queries regarding properties and locations. The new AI search feature is expected to evolve into a more comprehensive experience. While the conversational search feature is currently live for a very small percentage of traffic, Chesky noted that the company is doing a lot of experimentation. Over time, Airbnb plans to experiment with making AI search more conversational and integrating it into more than the trip. Eventually, the company will look at sponsored listings within the AI search flow as a result of these conversational developments.

These AI initiatives were announced alongside the company’s fourth-quarter financial results. Airbnb reported revenue of $2.78 billion for the fourth quarter, which is up 12% from a year earlier.

Why it matters

Airbnb is pivoting to an “AI-native” strategy, integrating large language models across its search, support, and engineering operations to improve efficiency and user personalization. By embedding these tools directly into its core platform, the company aims to streamline customer service and developer workflows while redesigning how users discover travel accommodations.