Airbnb Inc. is holding off on integrating its travel app into OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. According to CEO Brian Chesky, the startup’s tools for app integration are not “quite ready” yet. Natalie Lung reports for Bloomberg that while competitors like Booking and Expedia have already launched integrations, Airbnb will wait.
Chesky explained that because Airbnb is a community with verified members, OpenAI must provide a platform robust enough for the app to function in an “almost self-contained” manner within the chatbot. He noted that he advised OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on the development of these third-party features.
While a direct ChatGPT tie-up is on hold, Airbnb has updated its own in-app AI tools. The company’s AI customer service agent now uses action buttons and links to help customers with tasks like changing or canceling a reservation. This has reportedly reduced the need for a live representative by 15 percent.
According to Chesky, this agent is built on 13 different AI models from various providers, including OpenAI, Google, and Alibaba. He said the company relies heavily on Alibaba’s Qwen model because it is “very good,” fast, and cheap. “We use OpenAI’s latest models, but we typically don’t use them that much in production because there are faster and cheaper models,” Chesky stated.
