Airbnb plans AI agents for bookings across all travel sectors by 2027

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky revealed that the company intends to develop specialized artificial intelligence agents to manage bookings across all sectors of travel within the Airbnb app, according to Skift.

Currently, Airbnb uses link-offs to partners like CarTrawler for car rentals, but Chesky said moving to native booking integrations would allow Airbnb to capture more revenue and control customer service directly.

Chesky emphasized that partnerships will play a key role in this strategy, marking a shift from Airbnb's previous growth, which was mostly organic and without such collaborations.

The company aims to launch a specialized AI agent to interact with guests in the first half of 2027, with Chesky stating these specialized agents will outperform generalized AI systems.

This development suggests Airbnb is expanding beyond its traditional lodging focus to cover every vertical in travel, potentially including flights and cruises in the future.