Airbnb is taking a measured approach to rolling out AI features to its consumer-facing platform, but behind the scenes, the company is rapidly integrating the technology into its product development process. Earlier this year, Airbnb revealed that AI now writes 60% of its code. In the company's latest earnings call, co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky highlighted how AI is enabling faster iteration and feature shipping.
Chesky noted that AI has slashed the time from concept to launch by as much as 60% across key initiatives. During the second-quarter earnings call, he emphasized the transformation:
“Today, we’re building, testing, and iterating faster than we could just a year ago. Across some of our key initiatives, we’ve reduced the time from concept to launch by as much as 60%. And compared to the same six months last year, we’ve increased the number of features and improvements we shipped this year by nearly 80%.”
He pointed to improvements in search, sign-up, checkout, and payments as areas where AI has made a significant impact. Airbnb has also rolled out tools for hosts, including a quicker onboarding flow powered by AI.
Consumer-facing AI features have been slower to arrive, with limited implementations like review summaries and listing highlights. Chesky has previously said that a simple chatbot interface wouldn't suit travel use cases. Instead, the company has focused on AI for search, discovery, and support.
Now, Airbnb is finally testing an AI-driven search feature. Recognizing that many users are comfortable with the existing search and filter system, Airbnb will offer a toggle so customers can choose between the traditional interface and the new AI search. In AI mode, users can type natural language queries and receive results in a visual, conversational format.
“The titles [in the answer] could actually be AI generated and they can be conversational as if you’re reading a chatbot, but more visual. Then you get to the product description page and the highlights are AI generated in real-time and personalized to you,” Chesky explained.
On the backend, customer support has been a major beneficiary of Airbnb's AI adoption. The company launched its AI-powered support bot in North America in 2025, and this year expanded it to over 50 languages, with plans to add voice call support later in 2026.
The results are striking: nearly 45% of customer issues that start with the AI agent are resolved without human intervention. Consequently, Airbnb's support cost per booking has dropped 16% year-over-year.
Financially, Airbnb reported strong results for the quarter ending June 2026, with revenue up 17% year-over-year to $3.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA up 21% to $1.3 billion.
via TechCrunch AI