Airbnb has teased its plans to build its own AI travel agent before, but on Thursday the company announced that the new AI feature will launch in the first half of 2027. In the company's Q3 shareholder letter on Thursday, Airbnb also provided more detail about how the agent will work, what it will actually do, and how it's different from a typical AI chatbot.
In prior interviews, CEO Brian Chesky sketched out the travel company's approach to AI, describing a plan to build an AI agent that has a richer interface than a conventional chatbot. He also expressed his opinions about how chatbots aren't the right interface for travel, noting that people take pleasure in the planning process and in anticipating a trip. Any agent that it built, then, shouldn't take away from the inspiration and the browsing, he told TechCrunch in an interview last month.
Chesky today reiterated that belief, telling analysts on the earnings call that people won't use one AI agent for everything.
"Today's AI agents like Muse and Instinct are good at simple routine tasks like making a restaurant reservation or scheduling an appointment. But planning a trip is different," he said. "Travel is aspirational. Discovering where to go and where to stay is part of the experience. In fact, 80% of travelers say they enjoy spending time researching trips. People want to look at photos. They want to compare homes. They want to make decisions with people they're traveling with," he continued. "And I don't think the general-purpose agents are the best to do that. So that is why we are building our own AI agent," Chesky said.
Airbnb described its agent as having a personalized interface that's designed specifically for travel, where it will "build an interface" around a user's question instead of simply responding as a chatbot would.
"What we are doing is developing a custom-designed AI-native experience that responds to what guests are looking for," Chesky said. "So instead of relying on traditional chat alone, which is very text-heavy—which, again, is definitely not the way you should plan travel, our agent draws from a library of hundreds of travel-specific interface components—maps, photos, comparisons, calendars, itineraries—and composes them in real time to match what they're looking for."
The exec said the agent will feel "a little bit like generative UI" as it's designed to offer up "the right interface at the right time" for someone's specific travel needs.
In its shareholder letter, the company touted that its nearly 20 years of experience in bringing hosts and guests together is informing how the agent is built, as it incorporates insights about how people both book and host on its platform. The agent will also be able to help travelers beyond the booking itself.
"Our agent will be able to help guests throughout their trip—from changing a reservation or resolving a payment issue to getting help with refunds, rebooking, or 24-hour safety support. These are things an outside agent can't easily do on its own," the company wrote.
Over time, Airbnb expects the agent will be able to help travelers with other aspects of their trip, including not only homes and hotels, but also services and experiences. Services and experiences are two areas that have become a bigger focus for the company following its redesign last year.
While the company previously said to expect its AI agent sometime in the next year, it's now more specifically committing to roll out the new technology to consumers in the first half of 2027.
The news of the agent's release was delivered alongside strong third-quarter earnings, with revenue growing 19% to $4.87 billion, topping Wall Street estimates. It also raised its 2026 revenue growth forecast, which it now predicts will be in the high teens, instead of the mid-teens.
"Airbnb is back in growth mode," Chesky told analysts on the Q3 earnings call on Thursday. "It's rare for a marketplace of our size to reaccelerate growth, but that's exactly what we're doing. Q3 was our fastest revenue growth in more than three years," he added.
