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Airbnb say it ’s poise to pluck out AI applied science — but not in the way consumer may have initially wanted .
alternatively of offer up tools to help traveller be after or hold their trips with the service of AI agent , Airbnb is plan to first inclose AI to its customer support system . This update will roll out afterwards this summer , the company tell investors during its Q4 2024 wage call on Thursday .
Explained Airbnb co - founder and CEO Brian Chesky , AI can do “ an incredible line ” for customer service as it can utter any speech communication and understand thousands of page of documents . To set about , the AI will work as a customer service agent but its capability will flesh out over time .
While companies likeOpenAI , Google , andothersare working on AI agents — or AI software that can do a series of tasks on your behalf — Chesky believe the engineering science is still too other to be of exercise to Airbnb just yet . However , he believes that eventually , AI will have a “ profound encroachment on travel , ” even if nothing has modify for the major travel weapons platform as of now .
“ Here ’s what I think about AI . I think it ’s still really former , ” Chesky said . “ It ’s probably similar to … the mid - to - tardy ’ 90s for the cyberspace . ”
He note that other ship’s company were working on integration around slip planning , but that he thinks it ’s too soon for AI trip planning .
“ I do n’t think it ’s quite [ a ] snatch quick for select clock time , ” the CEO add together .
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As AI technology continues to arise , Airbnb will expand the AI - power client service agent to be a part of Airbnb ’s lookup and , at some period much further down the road , it will also become a “ travel and living concierge , ” Chesky said .
In add-on to customer service , the companionship report some small productiveness gain from using AI internally for technology purposes . But here , too , the executive advised caution , saying , “ I do n’t remember it ’s flowing to a primal step - variety in productivity yet . ”
In a few years , those gains could reach some form of “ medium - term ” encroachment , Chesky noted , like a 30 % increase in technology and engineering productiveness .
Airbnb did n’t say if its use of AI would impact head count , but CFO Ellie Mertz hinted toward greater efficiencies potential in the kingdom of customer service , in special .
“ In terms of ’ 25 and the mindset there , I would say , there ’s incremental chance across our varying monetary value , so area like requital processing and customer service opportunities to just be , frankly , a footling bit more efficient and to birth some perimeter elaboration there , ” Mertz distinguish investor .
Airbnb reported stiff earnings in Q4 that sawshares pop by 15%after trouncing on both pay and revenue . The company root for in $ 2.48 billion in tax revenue in the quarter , above estimates of $ 2.42 billion , and net per share of 73 cents , above the 58 cents expect .
