Airbnb told investors after Thursday’s closing bell that it expects to bring in more money this year than it had previously projected, and it pointed directly at artificial intelligence as one reason the math has improved. The company’s AI support assistant now settles nearly half of customer problems without a human agent ever picking up the case, and that alone shaved a sizable chunk off what it costs the company to service each booking. Fewer support agents per booking means more of every dollar booked stays with the company.

The second-quarter results landed well ahead of what Wall Street had penciled in. Revenue rose 17% from a year earlier to $3.6 billion, gross booking value climbed 16% to $27.2 billion, and earnings came in at $1.37 a share against the $1.26 analysts expected. Net income reached $816 million, up from $642 million in the same quarter last year, while adjusted EBITDA rose 21% to $1.26 billion. Nights and seats booked increased 10%, a faster pace than the first quarter, and the adjusted EBITDA margin held at 35%.

On the strength of that quarter, management raised the bar for the rest of the year. Airbnb now expects full-year revenue growth of at least the mid-teens, up from its earlier low-to-mid-teens target, and lifted its full-year adjusted profit margin floor to at least 35.5% from 35%. It is the second time this year the company has moved its annual revenue forecast higher. For the current quarter, Airbnb guided to revenue of $4.69 billion to $4.77 billion.

The AI story is the one management pushed hardest, and unlike most corporate AI talk, it came attached to a number readers can check. The company said its AI assistant is now available in more than 50 languages and resolves close to 45% of the issues it starts handling without escalating to a person — an improvement over the first quarter, with faster resolution times as well. Customer support cost per booking fell roughly 16% year over year, which Airbnb credited in large part to that assistant, and it expects the figure to keep falling as the tool takes on a wider range of problems.

That is the practical shape of the payoff. Customer service has always been the expensive, unglamorous side of running a global rental marketplace: millions of stays, each one carrying the possibility of a lockbox that won’t open or a listing that doesn’t match the photos. Automating even half of those calls changes the cost structure of the entire business, and it does so without requiring the company to book fewer stays or charge hosts more.

Chief executive Brian Chesky framed the quarter on the earnings call as the result of an internal overhaul rather than a bolted-on feature, telling analysts the company has rebuilt itself from the ground up as an AI-native operation and describing the computing costs of running those models as minor next to what they return. Finance chief Ellie Mertz said the raised guidance builds in a meaningful increase in AI spending, and margins are still widening anyway.

Demand did the rest of the work. Airbnb said growth picked up in both its newer expansion markets and several of its largest established ones, with nights booked accelerating in the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company described demand as strong across all regions, with Latin America growing especially fast.

The turn matters here. Earlier this year, the conflict in the Middle East pushed cancellation rates higher among travelers in Europe and Asia, and Airbnb had warned that the disruption would take roughly a percentage point off its second-quarter bookings. Growth accelerated regardless, which is the more meaningful signal in the report: a travel company adding bookings faster while carrying a live geopolitical headwind is one whose demand is not fragile.

There is also a credibility angle. The quarter ended a run of three consecutive periods in which Airbnb came in under profit expectations, a streak that had cost the stock some of the premium investors once granted it.

Markets responded immediately. Shares jumped about 11% in after-hours trading Thursday, after closing the regular session up roughly 12% for the year to date.

The open question for the second half is whether the comparisons get harder. Airbnb is now lapping quarters in which it was already growing quickly, and the new full-year target leaves less room to disappoint. But the cost side of the ledger is moving in the company’s favor for reasons that do not depend on travelers booking more nights — and that is the part of this quarter competitors will find hardest to copy.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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