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<p><span class="QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer" data-test="QuoteInBody" id="RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-1"><a
href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/ABNB/">Airbnb</a><span class="QuoteInBody-inlineButton"><span
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shares surged 15% Friday after the company delivered one of its <a
href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/06/airbnb-abnb-q2-earningsreport.html">strongest growth quarters in
years</a> and raised its full-year outlook — a turnaround CEO Brian Chesky is directly crediting to <a
href="https://www.cnbc.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/">artificial intelligence</a>.</p>
<p>In an exclusive interview with CNBC after the earnings report, Chesky said Airbnb will spend "a lot more" on
AI tokens this year than it originally forecast because the cost of inference "pales in comparison" to the
revenue and productivity the company is getting back.</p>
<p>Airbnb is cutting product-development time by roughly 60%, shipping about 80% more features year over year
and keeping headcount roughly flat even as AI spending rises sharply, Chesky said.</p>
<p>"I think now it's safe to say AI is the best thing to have happened to Airbnb," he said. "I think we're
becoming an AI-native company, and I think that is probably the number one explanation for our results."</p>
<p>That conviction marks a sharp turn for Chesky. A year ago, Chesky said the question inside the company was
essentially, "Is AI good for Airbnb or is AI bad for Airbnb?"</p>
<p>The shift is notable for a CEO who has long approached technology more like a designer than a traditional
engineer.</p>
<p>Chesky went to the Rhode Island School of Design and studied industrial design before co-founding Airbnb.
Years later, he would become close with former <span class="QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer"
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design chief Jony Ive and <span class="QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer" data-test="QuoteInBody"
id="RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-5"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/OPENAI.FG/">OpenAI</a><span
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CEO <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/sam-altman/">Sam Altman</a> — and eventually introduce the two men,
helping spark the relationship that led to their work together on AI hardware.</p>
<p>Now, Chesky is trying to bring that same design-first sensibility to Airbnb's own AI overhaul.</p>
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<p>The company hired <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/14/airbnb-tech-chief-meta-ai.html">Ahmad Al-Dahle</a>,
<span class="QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer" data-test="QuoteInBody" id="RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-8"><a
href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/META/">Meta</a><span class="QuoteInBody-inlineButton"><span
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former head of generative AI and a leader of its Llama work, as chief technology officer in January. Chesky
said Airbnb had been "maybe middle of the pack in AI" before Al-Dahle arrived with a mandate to help make
the company "AI-native."</p>
<p>There are already measurable signs of that shift. Chesky said AI is helping Airbnb attract more bookings, make
it easier for hosts to list and price homes, and lower customer-service costs.</p>
<p>The company is piloting AI-powered search, using AI to generate personalized listing highlights and answers
for guests, and helping hosts create and price listings. In customer service, 45% of guests who interact with
Airbnb's AI agent never need to speak with a human agent.</p>
<p>"It's really across the board: More demand, more supply, cheaper customer service," Chesky said.</p>
<p>Internally, Airbnb is also closely tracking how employees use AI. Chesky said the company looks at individual
token usage as one measure of adoption, but considers that a relatively crude metric and focuses more heavily
on the output of teams.</p>
<p>"What we're seeing is that across the board, teams are significantly more productive," Chesky said. He said
those gains began with engineers and have since spread to product management, design, marketing, and creative
services. "I have so underestimated the impact of AI."</p>
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<p>That productivity is showing up in Airbnb's hiring plans as well. Headcount is roughly flat year to date, even
as spending on AI rises sharply, and Chesky said investors should expect revenue to grow "a lot faster" than
staffing for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>"Our philosophy has been not necessarily to use AI to have fewer people, but to use AI to get more out of the
people," Chesky said. He added that revenue per employee should continue to rise.</p>
<p>The economics are central to Chesky's increasingly bullish view of AI. While many consumer companies are
still trying to figure out how to generate enough revenue to justify inference costs, he argues Airbnb has an
unusually favorable model.</p>
<p>"One of the problems is a lot of people feel like they don't know how to make money on consumer with AI,"
Chesky said.</p>
<p>At Airbnb, he said, inference costs pale in comparison with "the amount of money we make on every booking" and
the additional revenue generated by faster product development.</p>
<p>"We are going to spend a lot more on AI tokens this year than we forecasted," he said. "But that's great
because the ROI is there, and therefore our revenue is much higher."</p>
<p>Airbnb is still trying to be selective about where it spends those tokens and the company is using more than a
dozen AI models internally, Chesky said. Those include models like <span class="QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer"
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href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/ANTHR.FG/">Anthropic</a><span
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Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex. But it limits access to some slower and more expensive models when their
additional capability is not necessary for the task.</p>
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<p>Chesky is particularly bullish on open-source models for consumer-facing products and said frontier models
remain important for the hardest problems, but most consumer tasks do not require the most expensive
systems.</p>
<p>"Consumers mostly do not need frontier models for most things," Chesky said. "It's a matter of throttling the
right job for the right tool."</p>
<p>He declined to name the open-source models Airbnb is deploying in consumer products, saying the makeup of the
company's technology stack is becoming competitively sensitive.</p>
<p>The bigger question is whether AI ultimately becomes more than a tool inside Airbnb — and instead changes how
travelers reach the platform in the first place. As AI agents become better at assembling itineraries and
acting on behalf of users, companies like OpenAI and <span class="QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer"
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href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL/">Alphabet</a><span class="QuoteInBody-inlineButton"><span
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could theoretically become the interface through which travelers discover and book accommodations.</p>
<p>But Chesky is skeptical that chatbots will replace Airbnb as the transaction layer.</p>
<p>Travel is visual, difficult to compare through text alone and often planned collaboratively, he said, all
areas where the traditional chatbot interface remains weak.</p>
<p>"I do not believe the chat interface is the right interface for travel," Chesky said.</p>
<p>He expects chatbots to become important for inspiration and itinerary building, but said he does not see them
becoming major booking platforms "in the coming future."</p>
<p>For now, Chesky said he is focused on using AI to extend Airbnb's own growth runway. He told CNBC that
first-time bookers are growing at the fastest pace in four years and said the U.S. business accelerated from
the first quarter. Hotels, meanwhile, are growing three times faster than the company's traditional home
listings as Airbnb expands beyond the home-rental marketplace it built its name on.</p>
<p>"We are not a company whose best days were in the 2010s," Chesky said. "We are a company where the best days
are in front of us."</p>
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moment from the most trusted name in business news.</a></div>AI-Powered Ascent: Airbnb Soars on Unprecedented Growth, CEO Credits Artificial Intelligence for Transformative Results
San Francisco, CA – Airbnb shares experienced a dramatic surge of 15% on Friday following the announcement of one of the company’s strongest growth quarters in years, prompting an optimistic revision of its full-year outlook. In a significant declaration, CEO Brian Chesky attributed this remarkable turnaround directly to the strategic integration of artificial intelligence.
In an exclusive interview with CNBC post-earnings, Chesky revealed that Airbnb plans to significantly increase its expenditure on AI tokens this year beyond initial projections. He emphasized that the "cost of inference pales in comparison" to the substantial revenue gains and productivity enhancements the company is realizing. This investment is yielding tangible results: product-development time has been slashed by approximately 60%, feature delivery has escalated by an impressive 80% year-over-year, and headcount has remained largely stable despite the steep rise in AI spending.
"I think now it’s safe to say AI is the best thing to have happened to Airbnb," Chesky stated with conviction. "I think we’re becoming an AI-native company, and I think that is probably the number one explanation for our results."
This emphatic endorsement marks a profound shift for Chesky. Just a year ago, internal discussions at Airbnb revolved around the fundamental question of whether "AI [is] good for Airbnb or [is] AI bad for Airbnb?"
Chesky’s journey to this AI-centric strategy is particularly noteworthy given his background. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design with a focus on industrial design, he co-founded Airbnb with a designer’s perspective rather than that of a traditional engineer. His close relationships with figures like former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whom he famously introduced, laid the groundwork for their collaborative ventures in AI hardware. Now, Chesky is channeling that same design-first philosophy into Airbnb’s comprehensive AI overhaul.
Driving this transformation is the addition of Ahmad Al-Dahle as Chief Technology Officer in January. Al-Dahle, formerly Meta‘s head of generative AI and a key architect of its Llama work, was brought in with a clear mandate to steer Airbnb towards becoming an "AI-native" organization. Chesky candidly admitted that prior to Al-Dahle’s arrival, Airbnb was "maybe middle of the pack in AI."
The impact of this shift is already evident across Airbnb’s operations. Chesky highlighted that AI is instrumental in attracting more bookings, streamlining the process for hosts to list and price properties, and significantly reducing customer service costs. The company is currently piloting AI-powered search capabilities, leveraging AI to generate personalized listing highlights and answer guest queries, and assisting hosts with creating and pricing listings. In a testament to its efficiency, 45% of guests interacting with Airbnb’s AI agent now complete their interactions without needing human intervention.
"It’s really across the board: More demand, more supply, cheaper customer service," Chesky summarized.
Internally, Airbnb rigorously tracks AI adoption, focusing less on crude metrics like individual token usage and more on the tangible output of its teams. Chesky observed, "What we’re seeing is that across the board, teams are significantly more productive." He noted that these productivity gains, initially concentrated among engineers, have now permeated product management, design, marketing, and creative services. "I have so underestimated the impact of AI," he confessed.
This enhanced productivity is directly influencing Airbnb’s hiring strategy. Headcount has remained relatively flat year-to-date despite escalating AI investments. Chesky anticipates that revenue growth will "a lot faster" than staffing in the foreseeable future, emphasizing a philosophy of leveraging AI not to reduce personnel, but to amplify the capabilities of its existing workforce. Consequently, revenue per employee is projected to continue its upward trajectory.
Chesky’s bullish perspective on AI’s economics stems from Airbnb’s unique business model. While many consumer companies struggle to justify inference costs with corresponding revenue, Airbnb enjoys a highly favorable return on investment. The inference costs, Chesky explained, are minimal compared to "the amount of money we make on every booking" and the additional revenue generated through accelerated product development.
"We are going to spend a lot more on AI tokens this year than we forecasted," he reiterated. "But that’s great because the ROI is there, and therefore our revenue is much higher."
Airbnb employs a diverse array of over a dozen AI models internally, including Anthropic‘s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex. The company strategically limits access to slower, more expensive models when their advanced capabilities are not essential for a given task. Chesky expressed a particular enthusiasm for open-source models in consumer-facing applications, asserting that while frontier models are crucial for the most complex challenges, most consumer interactions do not necessitate the highest-cost systems.
"Consumers mostly do not need frontier models for most things," Chesky stated. "It’s a matter of throttling the right job for the right tool."
He remained tight-lipped about the specific open-source models deployed in consumer products, citing competitive sensitivity regarding the company’s technology stack.
The long-term question remains whether AI will fundamentally reshape how travelers engage with the platform. With the rise of sophisticated AI agents capable of crafting itineraries and acting on behalf of users, entities like OpenAI and Alphabet could theoretically become the primary interfaces for discovering and booking accommodations.
However, Chesky maintains a healthy skepticism about chatbots displacing Airbnb as the transaction layer. He argues that travel planning is inherently visual, difficult to compare solely through text, and often a collaborative endeavor—areas where traditional chatbot interfaces still fall short.
"I do not believe the chat interface is the right interface for travel," Chesky asserted. While he expects chatbots to play a vital role in inspiration and itinerary building, he does not foresee them becoming major booking platforms "in the coming future."
For now, Chesky’s focus remains squarely on leveraging AI to propel Airbnb’s growth. He shared with CNBC that first-time bookers are increasing at their fastest rate in four years, and the U.S. business has shown accelerated growth since the first quarter. Furthermore, the company’s expansion into hotels is yielding significant results, with hotel bookings growing three times faster than its traditional home listings, signaling Airbnb’s evolution beyond its original home-rental marketplace.
"We are not a company whose best days were in the 2010s," Chesky concluded confidently. "We are a company where the best days are in front of us."
Airbnb stock chart
