Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: agents Muse and Instinct fail at booking

Chesky's skepticism about chatbots as a shopping interface is long-standing: he has said a chatbot-only interface is not fit for travel discovery, because it gives a few options at a time and requires multiple turns. Airbnb's new AI-powered search, rolled out this week as part of its fall update, is his company's answer so far — but he describes it as a first version rather than the endgame, with the interface set to evolve toward something between a chatbot and what shipped.

His critique extends past the interface to the plumbing. He argues the industry lacks a true operating system built for AI, with apps for iOS, macOS and Windows rather than AI operating systems, and he recalls telling Sam Altman that ChatGPT's early app store effort needed a software developer kit and an operating system to work. His proposed path runs through apps becoming agents, all interoperable, with much richer user interfaces — and he notes that as long as the iPhone remains dominant and Apple and Google control the major platforms, apps are likely to remain central, with agents living inside them rather than replacing them.

The stakes for Airbnb hang on whether the agent-friendly infrastructure Chesky describes, and the voice agents planned for this fall, can turn agents from a poor booking channel into a useful lead generator. That outcome may depend on whether platform owners build a new layer for agents, or whether apps keep hosting agents inside themselves.