Airbnb says AI is helping it ship features faster as it tests a new search function

Airbnb is leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate the development and deployment of features, according to co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky. Speaking at the company's recent earnings call, Chesky revealed that AI is now responsible for writing 60% of the company's code. This accelerated pace of feature creation has resulted in a 60% reduction in time from conceptualization to shipping, as well as an 80% increase in the number of features and improvements shipped compared to the same period last year.

Chesky highlighted that AI has been instrumental in improving various aspects of the Airbnb user experience, including search, sign-up, checkout, and payments. The company has also introduced features designed to assist hosts, such as a more streamlined onboarding process.

Airbnb's adoption of consumer-facing AI features has been slower and more targeted, primarily focusing on search, discovery, and support. The company is currently testing an AI-powered search function, which will allow users to input natural language queries and receive results in a visual format. The titles of the search results could potentially be AI-generated and presented in a conversational, chatbot-like manner.

Additionally, the product descriptions and highlights within the search results will also be AI-generated and personalized to the user.

In terms of customer support, Airbnb has deployed AI agents in North America since 2025, with recent expansion to over 50 languages. These AI agents have successfully resolved nearly 45% of customer issues without human intervention, resulting in a 16% decrease in support costs per booking compared to the previous year.