During its Q4 2025 earnings call, Airbnb reported better-than-expected revenue of $2.78 billion, up 12% year over year. But the bigger headline wasn’t financial — it was strategic. CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky outlined how AI will power everything from customer support to trip planning, internal engineering, and the company’s expansion into hotels and new services.
AI First, But Not Chatbot First
While many tech companies rushed to integrate chatbots into their apps, Airbnb took a different route.
We started by solving the hardest problem, customer support,
Chesky said during the call.
The company built a custom AI agent trained on millions of Airbnb’s historical support interactions. According to Chesky, the system is already resolving one-third of customer support cases without human intervention — significantly reducing resolution times. The AI support agent is currently live across North America, with a global rollout planned.
Toward an AI-Native Airbnb App
Customer support is only the beginning. Chesky described a broader vision of an “AI-native” Airbnb experience.
We’re building an AI-native experience where the app doesn’t just search for you, it knows you,
he said.
In practical terms, that means AI will eventually help guests plan entire trips — not just book accommodations. It will also assist hosts in running their businesses more effectively and help Airbnb operate more efficiently at scale.
To lead this transformation, Airbnb hired Ahmad Al-Dahle as CTO. Al-Dahle previously spent 16 years at Apple and most recently led the generative AI team at Meta that built the Llama model. Chesky called him “one of the world’s leading AI experts,” highlighting his ability to combine large-scale technical systems with design-focused user experiences.
AI as a Competitive Moat
Airbnb’s AI ambitions also serve as a defensive strategy in a world increasingly shaped by AI search and aggregators.
This approach is also our strongest defense against disintermediation,
Chesky said.
While chatbots might surface listings from across the web, Airbnb argues that its proprietary ecosystem creates a barrier to replication.
A chatbot can give you a list of homes, but it can’t give you the unique points you find on Airbnb,
Chesky said.
He pointed to Airbnb’s 200 million verified identities, 500 million proprietary reviews, integrated messaging between guests and hosts (used by 90% of guests), global payment infrastructure, customer support, and insurance.
By layering AI over the entire Airbnb experience, we believe we’re building something that’s impossible to replicate,
he added.
AI Inside the Company
The AI push extends internally. Airbnb said that 80% of its engineers are already using AI tools in their workflows — with a goal of reaching 100%.
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That level of adoption signals that AI is not just a product initiative but a productivity multiplier across the organization, potentially accelerating feature development, services expansion, and experimentation.
Beyond Homes: Services, Hotels, and the ‘Airbnb Trip’
AI will also play a role in Airbnb’s broader product strategy, which Chesky described as the “Airbnb trip.” The company has been expanding beyond accommodations into services and experiences, launching them globally in May but scaling city by city.
We are one app and one brand, where every part of the trip makes the other parts stronger,
Chesky said.
Airbnb has started in cities like Paris for experiences and Los Angeles for services, while also testing new offerings such as grocery delivery and airport pickups. The company is also bringing boutique and independent hotels onto the platform, calling the opportunity “massive.”
AI will serve as connective tissue across these verticals — helping users move fluidly from booking a home to reserving an experience, ordering services, or selecting a hotel — all within a personalized interface.
The Long Game
Airbnb emphasized that it is still early in its AI journey but signaled strong expectations around product and services growth, platform enhancements, and the impact of AI investments.
Unlike companies that treat AI as a bolt-on feature, Airbnb is attempting to re-architect its entire platform around intelligence, identity, and integrated services.
Material by Iva Abadjievа
Image: Wikipedia, Portrait of Brian Chesky, 2025
