Did Airbnb disclose a deal with CEO Brian Chesky's AI lab?
Airbnb disclosed that an AI lab controlled by its chief executive paid the company $7.1 million for some of its intellectual property and to cover certain expenses. The disclosure came in the company’s quarterly filing on Thursday, alongside results that showed revenue growing at its fastest pace in more than three years.
Who controls the AI lab that signed a deal with Airbnb?
Brian Chesky founded the lab and controls it. Under a deal signed this month, Airbnb can choose to join the lab’s future funding rounds, and it received a license to use some of the lab’s technology inside its own business. Chief technology officer Ahmad Al-Dahle holds a stake in the lab and also works for it. The filing said their roles with the lab do not change their duties and responsibilities to Airbnb.
A special committee of independent board members approved the arrangement under the company’s policy on related-party transactions. The filing does not name the lab or say what it is building.
The Information, which first reported the disclosure, said Chesky has funded the lab himself so far, citing a source. TNW said it had not independently verified that claim. Al-Dahle joined Airbnb in January from Meta, where he led generative AI, Bloomberg reported at the time.
Growth picks up speed
Revenue rose 19 percent to $4.9 billion in the quarter, and net income reached $1.9 billion. Nights and seats booked climbed 16 percent. The company now expects revenue to grow in the high teens this year, up from at least the mid-teens, and its board approved up to $12 billion in additional share buybacks.
“It’s rare for a marketplace of our size to reaccelerate growth, but that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Chesky told analysts on the earnings call.
Shares rose more than 10 percent on Friday, according to Reuters. That set Airbnb apart from Booking, Expedia and Tripadvisor, all of which have pointed to higher airfares linked to the Iran war and to unrest in parts of Europe. Airbnb last raised its forecast in August. Hotels, which the company began adding this year, grew “markedly faster” than homes in the quarter, Chesky said.
An AI travel agent and a rival problem
Is Airbnb building its own AI travel agent?
Airbnb plans to start rolling out its own AI agent for planning and booking trips in the first half of 2027. Rather than a chat window, the agent will build each answer from maps, photos, comparisons, calendars and itineraries. It will also handle changes, refunds and payment problems after a booking is made.
Chesky argued that general-purpose assistants, such as Meta’s Muse and Instinct, are not built for travel. Those tools still send Airbnb little business, he said on the call, as Business Insider reported. “We’re not seeing a lot of traffic, and even fewer bookings, from Muse and Instinct yet,” he said.
Traffic from AI agents peaked in early October and has not grown since, Chesky added.
Airbnb’s own support assistant now resolves about 40 percent of customer issues without a human agent. Support costs per booking fell more than 17 percent from a year earlier, the company said.
Este artículo fue escrito con la asistencia de IA.
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