Airbnb said on Thursday that it plans to launch an AI travel agent in the first half of 2027. That timeline is more specific than the company's earlier comments, which pointed to an agent arriving within the next year. The announcement came in the company's third-quarter shareholder letter, released alongside its earnings. The agent is meant to help users plan trips, compare options, manage bookings and get help during a stay.
The company has teased the project before. Chief executive Brian Chesky said in earlier interviews that Airbnb wants an agent with a richer interface than a conventional chatbot. He has argued that travellers enjoy the research and anticipation that come before a trip, so the tool should add to that experience rather than replace it.
How the agent is meant to work
Airbnb said it does not think a traditional chatbot is the right way to plan a trip. Instead, it is developing what it calls an “AI-native” experience that builds the interface around the user's question. The agent will draw on a library of hundreds of travel-specific elements, such as maps, photos, comparisons, calendars and itineraries, and put them together in real time.
On the earnings call, Chesky told analysts that people want to look at photos, compare homes and make decisions with the people they are travelling with. He said general-purpose agents are not the best tool for that job, which is why Airbnb is building its own. He acknowledged that today's agents handle simple, routine tasks well, such as booking a restaurant table. Airbnb also said its nearly 20 years of bringing hosts and guests together shapes how the agent is built.
Over time, the company expects the agent to help with more than homes and hotels. Services and experiences are expected to be part of that work, an area Airbnb has pushed harder since its redesign last year.
Help during a trip
Airbnb said the agent will not stop at the booking. Guests will be able to change a reservation, resolve a payment problem, ask for refunds or rebooking, and reach 24-hour safety support. The company argued that an outside agent would find these tasks hard to carry out on its own.
Earnings and what comes next
The announcement came with third-quarter revenue of $4.87 billion, up 19% and above Wall Street estimates. Airbnb also raised its 2026 revenue growth forecast to the high teens, from the mid-teens it had expected before. Chesky said the quarter was the company's fastest revenue growth in more than three years, and that Airbnb is “back in growth mode.”
In its shareholder letter, the company called AI “the best thing to ever happen to Airbnb” and said it has changed how the company develops products and runs its operations. Airbnb has not yet given pricing or said which markets will get the agent first. For now, the firm commitment is a consumer launch in the first half of 2027.
