Airbnb, Expedia, Uber: What Top CEOs Are Saying About AI

25.08.2023 - 13:31 / skift.com / Brian Chesky / Glenn Fogel / Justin Dawes / Paul Abbott

For developers, generative artificial intelligence will “allow our devs to kind of be super devs.” For consumers, it “can level the playing field from a service perspective.”

Those comments came from the CEOs of Uber and Airbnb, respectively, last month when discussing the changes that the tech could bring to their companies.

Since ChatGPT was released last November, many travel company CEOs have shared how they are implementing generative AI. Some have already released experimental tools to the public, while others have shared only vague plans. 

Many of those companies are speaking about those plans at events or in public shareholder meetings. Here, in alphabetical order by company, are some of the most noteworthy comments from executives in May. 

Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, shared details in early May with Skift CEO Rafat Ali about how the short-term rental company could change with AI. Chesky shared some additional comments with shareholders a few days later.  

“I think that going forward, Airbnb is going to be pretty different. Instead of asking you questions like where are you going and when are you going, I want us to build a robust profile about you, learn more about you and ask you two bigger and more fundamental questions: Who are you? And what do you want?”

“And ultimately, what I think Airbnb is building is not just a service or a product. But what we are in the largest sense is a global travel community. And the role of Airbnb in that travel community is to be the ultimate host. Think of us with AI as building the ultimate AI concierge that could understand you.”

“I think AI can level the playing field from a service perspective relative to hotels because hotels have front desk, Airbnb doesn’t.”

Paul Abbott, CEO of American Express GBT, said to shareholders on May 9 that the corporate travel company is exploring how generative AI can be implemented into the business.

“We do have a team that are focused on using generative AI models and big data to see what can we do to automate our processes more effectively. And yes, I definitely see that as a significant opportunity for us, not just in the months but years ahead.” 

Two Booking Holdings subsidiaries, Kayak and OpenTable, have developed plugins for the ChatGPT platform. The company has said it is exploring other ways that generative AI can be implemented into the company. 

Glenn Fogel, president and CEO of Booking Holdings, shared some additional comments at an earnings call in early May.

“I believe that we are going to be benefiting greatly from this new type of technology in many different areas, some we haven’t even thought of yet, and some things are going to be simple and easy, perhaps increasing the productivity of