We launched AI Autocomplete yesterday to solve the problem that Airbnb is facing (and Brian has very publicly called out): today's chat is not the end state.
We feel strongly that the ideal UX is a combination of chat + UI.
Chat is great for speed and flexibility. People can describe what they want in their own words without navigating through a rigid series of menus and filters.
UI is better for discoverability and precision. It makes options visible and gives people a clear way to browse, compare, and make decisions. You don’t want Airbnb to describe ten homes to you one at a time. You want to see the photos, prices, locations, maps, and filters.
The future should be a marriage of the two.
Someone should be able to type, “Find somewhere warm for my family in March,” and have the product immediately identify the missing details -dates, travelers, budget, and preferences- while showing the right visual interface around the request.
In doing so, the user gets what they want faster, and the product gets everything it needs to take the action in 1-shot.
That is what we just launched AI Autocomplete to help enable. It understands what someone is trying to do as they type, suggests the relevant parameters and options, and guides them toward the actions the product supports.
Chat provides speed and flexibility. UI provides discoverability and precision. The future is a marriage of the two.
I’m not saying Airbnb’s current interface is optimal for AI. It isn’t. The future interface should be conversational, but visually richer than a chatbot. It’s a hard problem, and we haven’t solved it yet.