New faces in the battle for the best deal in the accommodation brokerage market: The platform Airbnb has announced that it will rely even more heavily on artificial intelligence in the future. In this context, it has also brought on board a start-up from one of the inventors of Apple's voice assistant Siri.

For its new plans, Airbnb has acquired the twelve-member start-up Gameplanner.ai, led by experienced heads Adam Cheyer and Siamak Hodjat. Although the purchase price was not disclosed, media reports suggest it was just under 200 million dollars.

The young company Gameplanner.ai is currently still working in the so-called "stealth mode", meaning that it has so far operated under the radar. Cheyer is no stranger to the industry, he was already the founder of the company that stood behind Siri and was acquired by Apple. After working for the tech giant for two years, he worked with other Siri developers on the software Viv, which was eventually acquired by Samsung and became the foundation for the voice assistant Bixby. In addition, he was part of the founding team of Change.org, the largest petition platform globally.

According to Airbnb, they already use various AI models such as language or computer vision systems plus machine learning to make their offerings more attractive for users. Now, the platform plans to build a personalized "travel concierge" using AI, aiming to cater even more to the individual needs of users. Airbnb competes with other similar services and the hotel industry.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky expressed enthusiasm about the innovations and cooperation with Gameplanner.ai: "What makes this start-up so special is the perfect combination of AI, design, and community expertise," he said. He hopes to develop the best interfaces and applications for AI together with Cheyer and his team.

Even Cheyer himself was convinced of the possibilities that AI opens up at Airbnb: "Like Brian, I also believe that AI can only unfold a fraction of its potential without great design and community involvement," he said. The Airbnb team has a keen sense for the opportunities offered by AI. Together, they hope to significantly influence the future of the online accommodation brokerage market.