Airbnb plans to double down on synthetic intelligence to enhance its person expertise for each friends and hosts. Throughout a fourth-quarter earnings name, Airbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, mentioned the corporate is constructing an “AI-native expertise” geared toward serving to friends guide journeys, helping hosts with their listings, and working the corporate extra effectively. In line with Chesky, there’s an AI search software to assist friends guide journeys that is reside for a small share of customers proper now.
In a shareholder letter posted on Airbnb’s web site, the corporate mentioned it is conducting early testing with an AI-powered search that’s “targeted on giving friends a extra pure strategy to describe what they’re in search of, and ask questions concerning the itemizing and site.” The letter added that the AI search software will change into “a extra complete and intuitive search expertise that extends by the journey,” however the firm did not provide a definitive date on when it might be obtainable to the general public.
Whereas it might really feel like Airbnb is late to incorporating AI into its ecosystem, it launched an AI chatbot that handles customer support requests final 12 months. Whereas the AI agent is just obtainable to customers in North America at present, Airbnb mentioned that it already handles a 3rd of buyer requests with out the necessity for human intervention, as reported by TechCrunch. Chesky additionally mentioned through the earnings name that the AI chatbot would sort out “considerably extra” buyer tickets a 12 months from now and that it might roll out to the remainder of the world.
