Companies that talked about crypto last year and AI now ‘probably don’t understand either’
Airbnb ( ABNB ) CEO Brian Chesky addressed AI on March 6 at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, referring to it as a historic paradigm shift.
“Who knows what’s going to happen, but what seems to be true is that we’re experiencing a platform shift, that’s what we usually call this,” he said. “This platform shift is probably bigger than mobile. It’s probably akin to the Internet. Some would argue it’s bigger than the Internet, akin to the Industrial Revolution.”
However, Chesky is not convinced that companies will optimize the AI wave as much.
“So let’s ask the question, what companies were left behind by the internet, and what companies kind of ran the internet? I think the best way to understand AI is actually that simple, it’s just culture,” Chesky continued.
“The companies that will drive AI are the companies with innovative cultures, and the companies that will overtake them are the companies that use AI — the same companies that were talking last year about crypto and the metaverse,” he said.
“If a company was talking about crypto last year and they’re talking about AI now, they probably don’t understand either,” he added.
“I think we can bring a lot of that technology to Airbnb”
As for his own company, Chesky added that AI has the potential to help Airbnb better leverage and personalize its data.
“I think that we can bring a lot of that technology to Airbnb, basically to comb through our half a billion reviews, to be able to summarize them to do better matching,” he said. “I actually have this vision that one day our app is less like a store, and more like the most powerful travel concierge you could ever imagine.”
What Chesky seems to be implying is that AI could develop monetization opportunities at Airbnb, which are particularly important to the company right now – the company’s shares are down nearly 20% over the past twelve months.
Of course, AI is far from the only monetization opportunity that Airbnb has yet to latch on to. Another one that has often been talked about is sponsored listings.
“My CFO is from Amazon, and he used to use that Jeff Bezos quote, that you want to focus on the most perishable opportunities first,” he said. “The great thing is that sponsored listings are not perishable, and the bigger the platform gets, the more interesting the monetization actually becomes. Monetization is big on scale, so you want to get as much scale as possible. We still feel like we’re in land grab mode . It’s not the most ephemeral number one opportunity, but it’s certainly on the horizon.”
Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @agarfinks and on LinkedIn.
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