Chesky says Airbnb will spend ‘a lot more’ on AI as earnings beat and stock surges 15%

Airbnb's shares surged 15% on Friday after the company reported strong growth and raised its full-year outlook, with CEO Brian Chesky attributing the turnaround to AI. In an interview with CNBC, Chesky revealed that the company will spend "a lot more" on AI this year than originally forecasted, citing the high return on investment.

Airbnb is cutting product-development time by around 60%, shipping 80% more features yearly, and keeping headcount stable despite rising AI spending. Chesky believes AI is "the best thing to have happened to Airbnb" and the company is becoming "AI-native." This shift marks a significant change from a year ago when the question was whether AI was good or bad for Airbnb.

Chesky's design background has played a crucial role in this transformation, and he recently hired Meta's former head of generative AI, Ahmad Al-Dahle, as CTO. AI is helping Airbnb attract more bookings, simplify listing and pricing, and reduce customer-service costs. For instance, 45% of guests interacting with Airbnb's AI agent never need to speak with a human agent.

Internally, Airbnb is closely monitoring employee usage of AI, finding that teams are more productive across product management, design, marketing, and creative services. This productivity is reflected in Airbnb's hiring plans, with headcount remaining flat despite rising AI spending. Chesky is particularly optimistic about open-source models for consumer-facing products and believes that while frontier models are important for complex tasks, most consumer tasks do not require the most expensive systems.

He is skeptical that chatbots will replace Airbnb as the primary booking interface, citing the visual and collaborative nature of travel planning. Instead, he expects AI to enhance the user experience by providing inspiration and building itineraries, but not become a major booking platform in the near future.