Airbnb says AI is now handling a big share of customer support, with plans to expand globally

Airbnb

• Airbnb's AI handles one third of North American support issues
• AI may handle over 30 percent of global support tickets next year
• Airbnb reported $2.78 billion in Q4 revenue, beating expectations

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Airbnb is leaning heavily into artificial intelligence, and the company says its new AI system is already doing a large part of the work. According to report by TechCrunch, Airbnb's custom-built AI agent is currently handling about one third of customer support issues in North America. The company now plans to expand this system worldwide.

Speaking during the company’s latest earnings call, CEO Brian Chesky said Airbnb believes AI will soon play an even bigger role. The goal is that within about a year, more than 30 percent of customer support tickets across the world could be handled by AI voice and chat, alongside human agents.

Chesky said the change is not only about saving money but also about improving customer experience. He suggested that AI could help resolve certain issues faster and more effectively, which could raise the overall quality of support.

Airbnb is also investing heavily in AI talent. The company recently hired new Chief Technology Officer Ahmad Al-Dahle, who previously worked at Meta and led work on its AI projects. Chesky said the long-term vision is to build an app that does more than just help people search for homes. Instead, Airbnb wants an app that understands users better and helps plan entire trips, supports hosts in managing their properties, and makes the platform run more smoothly.

The company believes it has an advantage over generic AI chat tools because of its huge amount of data. Chesky pointed out that Airbnb has around 200 million verified users and hundreds of millions of reviews. He said AI tools outside the platform cannot easily match that because they do not have access to the same host communication system or internal data.

Financially, Airbnb reported strong numbers. It earned $2.78 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter, which was above market expectations. For the current quarter, the company expects revenue between $2.59 billion and $2.63 billion. Airbnb said it expects growth in the low double digits this year.

Some investors have questioned whether AI platforms could become a long-term threat if they move into the short-term rental market. Chesky pushed back against that idea, saying Airbnb is not just a booking app. He said the platform includes host tools, customer support, insurance, identity checks, and payment systems built over nearly two decades.

Airbnb is also slowly adding AI to other parts of the platform, including search. Right now, only a small percentage of users are seeing the new AI-powered search experience as the company tests a more conversational way of finding places to stay.

Internally, Airbnb says AI adoption is rising fast, with about 80 percent of its engineers already using AI tools as part of their work.