Airbnb says it’s launching an AI travel agent in the first half of 2027

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.

Airbnb 此前曾透露过其构建自有 AI 旅行代理的计划，但在周四，该公司宣布这项新的 AI 功能将于 2027 年上半年推出。在周四发布的第三季度股东信中，Airbnb 还提供了关于该代理如何运作、其实际功能以及它与典型 AI 聊天机器人有何不同的更多细节。

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.

在之前的采访中，首席执行官 Brian Chesky 概述了这家旅行公司对 AI 的方针，描述了一个旨在构建比传统聊天机器人拥有更丰富界面的 AI 代理的计划。他还表达了自己的观点，认为聊天机器人并不是旅行的合适界面，并指出人们在规划过程和对旅行的期待中能获得乐趣。他在上个月接受 TechCrunch 采访时表示，因此，他们构建的任何代理都不应剥夺这种灵感和浏览的乐趣。

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.

Chesky 今天重申了这一信念，在财报电话会议上告诉分析师，人们不会用一个 AI 代理处理所有事情。“今天的 AI 代理（如 Muse 和 Instinct）擅长简单的日常任务，比如预订餐厅或安排预约。但规划旅行则不同，”他说。“旅行是令人向往的。发现去哪里和住哪里是体验的一部分。事实上，80% 的旅行者表示他们喜欢花时间研究旅行。人们想看照片。他们想比较房源。他们想与同行的人一起做决定，”他继续说道。“我不认为通用代理是完成这些工作的最佳选择。这就是为什么我们要构建自己的 AI 代理，”Chesky 说。

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.”

Airbnb 将其代理描述为拥有专为旅行设计的个性化界面，它会围绕用户的问题“构建一个界面”，而不是像聊天机器人那样简单地回复。“我们正在做的是开发一种定制设计的 AI 原生体验，以响应客人的需求，”Chesky 说。“因此，我们的代理不再仅仅依赖传统的聊天（这种方式文字密集，再次强调，这绝对不是规划旅行的方式），而是从包含数百个旅行特定界面组件的库中提取内容——地图、照片、比较、日历、行程——并实时组合它们以匹配用户正在寻找的内容。”

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.

这位高管表示，该代理会让人感觉“有点像生成式 UI”，因为它旨在为某人的特定旅行需求提供“在正确时间出现的正确界面”。在股东信中，该公司吹捧其近 20 年来连接房东与客人的经验为该代理的构建提供了参考，因为它整合了关于人们如何在平台上预订和接待的见解。

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.

该代理还将能够在预订本身之外为旅行者提供帮助。“我们的代理将能够在整个旅程中为客人提供帮助——从更改预订或解决付款问题，到获得退款、重新预订或 24 小时安全支持方面的帮助。这些是外部代理无法轻易独立完成的事情，”该公司写道。随着时间的推移，Airbnb 预计该代理将能够帮助旅行者处理旅行的其他方面，不仅包括房屋和酒店，还包括服务和体验。服务和体验是该公司去年重新设计后更加关注的两个领域。

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.

虽然该公司此前曾表示预计其 AI 代理将在明年某个时候推出，但现在更明确地承诺在 2027 年上半年向消费者推出这项新技术。关于该代理发布的消息是在强劲的第三季度财报发布的同时传出的，营收增长了 19%，达到 48.7 亿美元，超过了华尔街的预期。它还上调了 2026 年的营收增长预测，目前预计增长率将达到百分之十几的高位，而不是之前预测的中位。

“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.

“Airbnb 回到了增长模式，”Chesky 在周四的第三季度财报电话会议上告诉分析师。“对于我们这种规模的市场平台来说，重新加速增长是罕见的，但这正是我们正在做的事情。第三季度是我们三年多来营收增长最快的一个季度，”他补充道。