Airbnb Rolls Out AI Customer Service Bot in the US, Reducing Live Agent Interactions by 15%

Airbnb is quietly rolling out an AI customer service bot in the US

Airbnb started rolling out an AI-powered customer service bot in the U.S. last month, CEO Brian Chesky said during the firm's first-quarter conference call on Thursday. Chesky said 50% of Airbnb's U.S. users are already using the AI bot for customer service, adding that the company plans to roll out the feature to all its users in the country this month. "One thing I'll say about AI [is that] it is definitely making the customer experience easier [...] It has already led to a 15% reduction in people needing to contact live human agents," he noted during the analyst call. Last year, the company told TechCrunch that it was testing the technology, but in a limited manner and only for certain queries. "I think there is a lot of potential for applying AI to the business. We think a lot about how AI is going to change the experience at the consumer layer over time," Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk told TechCrunch at that time. Unlike companies like OpenAI, Google, Perplexity and the slew of startups building AI agents (AI tools that can perform tasks on a user's behalf), Airbnb seems to be taking a more measured approach with AI. Chesky said in February that the company would use AI for customer service before it started implementing it for other uses like travel planning or booking tickets, as he believes the technology is still in its early days. Meanwhile, its competitors Expedia and Booking.com are investing heavily on the technology, launching AI features like building itineraries, trip planning, and real-time updates for travel. Airbnb's reported a total revenue of $2.27 billion for the first quarter, up 6% from a year earlier. The company, however, forecast current-quarter revenue slightly below analysts' expectations, and indicated that it was expecting travel demand to slow down as the global tariff war hurts sentiment and discourages discretionary spending.

Half of Airbnb users in the U.S. are now interacting with its AI customer service agent

Chesky said the AI assistant has already led to a 15% drop in users needing to contact live support agents. While the technology is still in its early stages, he expects it to steadily improve. "It's going to get significantly more personalized and agentic over the years to come," he said following the release of Airbnb's first-quarter earnings. Compared to other travel platforms racing to apply AI for trip planning and other complex tasks, Airbnb's approach remains cautious. Expedia, for example, began promoting its ChatGPT-powered trip planning feature in 2023.

Airbnb: 50% of Users Turn to AI Bot for Customer Service | PYMNTS.com

Airbnb has rolled out an artificial intelligence (AI) bot for customer service in the U.S. CEO Brian Chesky addressed the use of this tool during the company's recent first-quarter earnings call, TechCrunch reported Friday (May 2), saying that 50% of customers were already turning to the bot for customer service. "One thing I'll say about AI ... it is definitely making the customer experience easier. ... It has already led to a 15% reduction in people needing to contact live human agents," he said, adding that the company plans to offer the feature to all U.S. users this month. Speaking at the Human[x] conference in Las Vegas in March, Airbnb chief business officer Dave Stephenson said the company plans to embed AI throughout its operations to transform guest and homeowner experiences, offering a "concierge in your pocket." AI is an "incredibly high priority," Stephenson said, adding that top management recently met to discuss the "critical importance of AI" and its role in the lodging giant's long-term vision. "It pervades everything we do." Airbnb is working on sophisticated AI capabilities to personalize recommendations based on customer preferences and behaviors. The company amasses data through what it calls "passports," or user profiles, to help it grasp travel context and preferences. "The more [guests] interact with us, the better we can actually do predicting and matching," Stephenson said. "The happier they're going to be, the more likely they are to come back, and the happier the host is going to be, because we end up having the perfect guest for that host. It's a nice virtuous cycle." Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows more consumers expect generative AI to assist with their travel planning and experiences. To that end, Airbnb competitors such as Expedia and Booking.com are investing heavily in AI, deploying AI features such as building itineraries, trip planning, and real-time updates for travel. Meanwhile, Kayak CEO Steve Hafner told PYMNTS in February that the company plans to introduce AI agents this year to help customers with everything from searching for their next trip to checkout. "One thing Kayak hasn't done as well as search is booking," Hafner said. "We've had to hand people off to airline or hotel websites or online travel agencies to complete the booking. "With agentic AI, we can actually facilitate that without the consumer ever having to leave the Kayak experience," he added.