Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, while sharing his views on AI chatbots, said that it would be too early to consider tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity as the 'new Google'. He admitted that the potential of AI is huge but this technology is still in the early stages of development and it will take time to reach the level of search engines.
Why AI chatbots cannot replace Google?
Chesky told investors, "I don't think we should consider them as the 'new Google' right now." According to him, AI chatbots are useful in customer service and personalization but they have not yet become a complete alternative to the traffic and referrals received from search engines like Google.
He also reminded that the AI model that runs ChatGPT is not proprietary. Airbnb can also use the same API and many other companies can also implement it. According to Chesky, success in AI is not just in having the best model but in custom interdata-faces and fine-tuning the model for the right application.
How is Airbnb using AI?
The company said that their AI customer service agent in the US has reduced the number of cases where guests had to talk to a human agent by about 15%. This AI agent is made from 13 different models and has been trained on the data of millions of conversations. Currently it is available only in english but this year it will be introduced in more languages. By next year it will become more personalized and independent, that is, if someone wants to cancel a reservation, it will not only tell the way but will also complete the process itself.
The company said that their AI customer service agent in the US has reduced the number of cases where guests had to talk to a human agent by about 15%. This AI agent is made from 13 different models and has been trained on the data of millions of conversations. Currently it is available only in english but this year it will be introduced in more languages. By next year it will become more personalized and independent, that is, if someone wants to cancel a reservation, it will not only tell the way but will also complete the process itself.
Apart from this, this agent will also be able to help customers in planning and booking travel. Chesky believes that AI chatbots are changing the customer interaction of companies but at present they are enhancers, not replacements.
