Airbnb CEO admits 'I do not think anyone has figured out AI for travel or e-commerce yet' but says AI now writes 60% of its new code

Date:
Mon, 11 May 2026 12:15:00 +0000

Description:
Airbnb CEO boasts about AI-written code, despite admitting companies haven't "figured out" AI for travel or ecommerce yet.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Airbnb says 60% of its code is now AI-written CEO claims AI is helping it work better with AI partners, customer support But claims no-one has fully figured out the technology yet Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has highlighted the effect of AI on writing code in his business, claiming that using the technology has led to new heights of success.

Airbnb now claims 60% of the code its engineers produced over the quarter was written by AI tools, showing the increasing dominance of the technology in larger businesses. And speaking on the company's Q1 2026 earning call, Chesky seemed to suggest this was only the beginning, as there were still some major hurdles to overcome. Latest Videos From You may like 'AI coding tools are now the default': Top engineering teams double their output as nearly two-thirds of code production shifts to AI-Generation and could reach 90% within a year Amazon CEO Andy Jassy lays out his '6 truths' for the future of AI
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it won't come for their jobs AI coding on the rise In particular, Chesky outlined how Airbnb uses AI to build tools for its API partners, who manage their properties using different software.

API partners say they want to be better hosts and need better tools," the CEO noted. "AI gives huge leverage where you might have needed a team of 20 engineers before, an engineer can now spin up agents to do a lot of work
under supervision. Adopting AI tools gives us leverage to build more software for API partners, accelerating work we previously did not have resources
for."

The company has also been increasing its use of AI for user help and assistance, with Chesky claiming Airbnb's customer support AI bot is now able to handle around 40% of issues without needing to escalate to a human agent.

However, he noted AI tools still have a number of issues, particularly in terms of how they present information to someone contacting customer support, which can lead to a much worse user experience. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

I do not think anyone has figured out AI for travel or e-commerce yet,"
Chesky said. "The design of a chatbot , as currently constructed, does not work for travel or e-commerce. There are four problems: too much text (most
of e-commerce is photo-forward); no direct manipulation (you have to type everything rather than adjust sliders); poor comparison (you can get lost trying to compare thousands of options in a thread); and most bookings are multiplayer, while chatbots are primarily single-player, and not map-native."

Chesky's quotes echo a number of other major businesses claiming that AI-written code is becoming more widespread - most notably, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently claimed nearly one-third of the company's code is now produced this way.

However these findings should always be taken with a pinch of salt, as more in-depth research has claimed AI-generated code produces 1.7x more issues
than human code , ultimately leading to longer reviews and the potential for more bugs to make it through to the finished product. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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