Small cities push back against Airbnb
Last month, Airbnb started introducing its AI-powered customer service bot nationwide. The news was first announced by CEO Brian Chesky on the company’s first-quarter conference call Thursday. That’s a big move in building artificial intelligence into their customer service model.
Previously, users could only ask it specific queries. The same bot, powered by AI, has been in testing since last year. In February, Chesky said at the company’s earnings call that they would use AI in customer service, before turning to other uses. Even still, that’s nearly half of Airbnb’s U.S. users engaging with the AI bot right now, and likely more. To start, it will be gradually releasing this to the rest of its U.S. users over the course of the month.
In the recent analyst call, Chesky discussed how they plan to take advantage of AI to improve customer experience among other things. He noted that the implementation of the AI bot has led to a 15% reduction in the need for users to contact live human agents. “One thing I’ll say about AI is that it is definitely making the customer experience easier,” he stated.
Chesky admitted that AI is still in its early stages but reiterated its potential to adapt and automate the way companies do business. As Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder of Airbnb, recently put it, he’s excited for AI to power a new era of how consumers engage with the world around them. I think there’s huge application of AI potential into the business. As he stated, “We’re always looking at how AI is gonna change the consumer experience in the long term.”
Airbnb touts major wins as it posts $2.27 billion in first-quarter revenue. That’s about 6 percent more than the same time last year. The company is still pushing into creative new areas to increase engagement and improve the user experience, but it’s fueling profits.
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