Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky recently said that artificial intelligence will play a major role in Airbnb’s software development in the first quarter of 2026, with approximately 60% of the code written by the company’s engineers being generated by AI. During Airbnb’s Q1 2026 earnings call, Brian Chesky said the company is increasingly using AI tools for coding, customer support, and search. Comments put Airbnb alongside companies like Google, Microsoft, and Spotify, which also talk about using AI to speed up programming tasks and software development.Chesky said AI has been particularly helpful in building tools for Airbnb’s API partners, which use various software systems to manage properties.“API partners are saying they want to be better hosts and they need better tools. AI brings great leverage. Where before it might have taken a team of 20 engineers, now engineers can stand up agents and do a lot of work under their supervision,” Chesky said.He added, “By adopting AI tools, we will be able to build more software for our API partners, accelerating work that we previously did not have the resources for.”
Airbnb announces 40% of customer support issues are now handled by AI bots
During the earnings call, the company also revealed that it has expanded its use of AI in customer support over the past year. According to Chesky, the company’s AI-powered support bots currently handle 40% of customer issues without the need for a human agent. At the beginning of this year, this number was around 33%.The company is also testing AI-powered search features, but Chesky said the travel industry still faces challenges in utilizing chatbot-based AI tools.“I don’t think anyone understands AI for travel or e-commerce yet,” Chesky said.He added that current chatbot designs have several limitations for travel and shopping platforms, including “too much text,” “not enough comparison” between options, and the fact that chatbots are “primarily single-player,” whereas bookings often involve multiple people.
