Airbnb has taken its time rolling out AI features within the app, but CEO Brian Chesky said Friday that the company now plans to bake in features powered by larger language models that will help users find listings, plan their trips and help hosts manage their properties.

Speaking on the company’s fourth-quarter conference call, Chesky said the company wants to expand its use of large language models for customer discovery, support and engineering.

“We’re building an AI-native experience where the app doesn’t just find you. It knows you. It will help guests plan their entire trip, help hosts run their business better, and help the company operate more efficiently at scale,” he said.

The company said separately that it is testing a new feature that allows users to search for and ask questions about properties and locations using natural language queries.

Currently, Airbnb offers an LLM-powered customer service bot for some personalization and communication. The new AI search feature is expected to “transform into a more comprehensive and intuitive search experience that spans the journey.”

Asked by an analyst whether Airbnb will roll out sponsored property slots within AI search, Chesky said the company wants to get design and user experience first.

“AI search is currently live for a very small percentage of traffic. We’re experimenting a lot. Over time, we’re going to experiment to make AI search more conversational, integrate it into more than just a trip, and, eventually, we’ll see sponsored listings as a result,” Chesky said. Airbnb will consider what’s best suited for a search unit to design an ad flow, Chesky said.

Chesky said Airbnb plans to use the AI ​​expertise of its new CTO, Ahmed El Dahle (he previously worked on Meta’s llama models), to review its identity and data to make the app more useful.

Airbnb claims that its AI-powered customer support bot, launched in North America last year, now handles a third of customer issues without the need for human intervention. Chesky noted that there are plans to enable users to call an AI bot for assistance, and to expand language coverage to customer support as well.

“A year from now, if we’re successful, significantly more than 30% of tickets will be handled by a customs service agent, in multiple languages, in all languages ​​where we have live agents. AI customer service won’t just be chat, it’ll be voice,” he said.

The company is also looking to expand its use of AI internally. Airbnb said 80% of its engineers use AI tools, but the goal is to reach 100%.

Airbnb reported better-than-expected revenue of $2.78 billion in the fourth quarter, up 12 percent from a year ago.