Dive Brief:
- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky credited AI for accelerating Airbnb’s customer experience initiatives and transforming customer support during a Q2 2026 earnings call Thursday.
- Those initiatives include AI-generated listings and AI-powered review highlights. The company plans on launching AI home comparison later this year, so guests can compare homes side-by-side before booking.
- “Compared to the same six months last year, we've increased the number of features and improvements we shipped this year by nearly 80%,” Chesky said. “The acceleration from AI allowed us to make hundreds of improvements across Airbnb for hosts and guests.”
Dive Insight:
No one product or initiative produced Airbnb’s strong results in the second quarter, according to Chesky. Rather, AI allowed Airbnb to supercharge its efforts, so the company is building, testing and iterating on its products and experiences faster.
“We've rebuilt Airbnb from the ground up to be an AI-native company,” Chesky said. “Said simply, AI is the best thing to ever happen to Airbnb.”
Airbnb reported $3.6 billion in revenue in Q2, amounting to 17% year-over-year growth, and net income of $816 million, according to a letter to shareholders. Gross booking value grew 16% year over year to $27.2 billion.
The company saw an 11% increase in first-time bookers as well, the highest growth rate in four years. Gen Z is the fastest growing cohort of first-time bookers.
Airbnb’s customer support is receiving an AI boost. Its AI assistant resolves nearly 45% of inquiries started with it without a human agent, up from 40% in the first quarter. The AI assistant delivers faster resolution times and is now available in more than 50 languages. The company plans on introducing AI voice support later this year.
Customer support cost per booking declined about 16% year over year in the second quarter, which is attributed in part to the AI assistant.
“We expect those costs to continue to decline as our AI assistant resolves more and more issues and of course, as we bring it to voice,” Chesky said.
