Airbnb's Big AI Bet
Airbnb is making a big bet on AI, and it is starting to show up everywhere: in the code behind the app, in the way you search for a place, and in how the company handles your questions.
On its second-quarter earnings call, CEO Brian Chesky said AI now writes 60% of the company's code. That does not mean a robot built the app.
It means the human engineers who work on it are getting a lot more done in a lot less time.
Chesky said the time from idea to launch has been cut by up to 60% on some key projects. That kind of speed changes what a small team can ship.
"Today, we're building, testing, and iterating faster than we could just a year ago," he told investors.
That speed shows up in the output. In the same six-month stretch this year, Airbnb shipped nearly 80% more features and improvements than it did a year earlier.
The faster pace is not just about tiny tweaks. AI is now working in search, account registration, checkout, and payment processing, according to Chesky.
So the parts of the app you touch every day are now AI-assisted, not just the back-office work.
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Airbnb's AI push is also reaching hosts and support. Hosts now have a faster onboarding process, and guests already see AI-generated review summaries and listing highlights. These changes are part of a broader effort to reduce friction before, during, and after a booking.
Airbnb is starting to test an AI search feature, and it works differently from the search bar you know.
The New AI Search Test
Instead of stacking filters and sorting through rows of similar listings, the test lets you type in plain language. A toggle in the app switches you from the usual search-and-filter experience to natural-language search with visual results.
So instead of setting a price range, picking a neighborhood, and checking a "has wifi" box, you type something like "a cabin near a lake with a fireplace" and the app turns that into a visual set of options.
Result titles in the test can be AI-written and conversational, and product pages can show AI-generated highlights that adjust to you in real time.
Chesky described it this way: "The titles 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."
In other words, the search results still look like Airbnb, with photos and cards to click, but the path to get there feels a lot more like a conversation.
This is a deliberate direction. Chesky previously said a chatbot-style interface is not a good fit for travel, so Airbnb focused its AI work on search, discovery, and support instead.
What It Means for Your Next Trip
Some of the AI work is already quietly changing the experience. Airbnb launched its AI customer-support bot in North America in 2025. This year, the company added support for 50-plus languages, and voice-call support is planned for later in 2026.
Nearly 45% of customer issues that start with the AI agent are resolved without any human involvement. Support cost per booking fell 16% year over year.
That efficiency shows up in the financials. In the three months through June, revenue rose 17% year over year to $3.6 billion, and a profit measure called adjusted EBITDA rose 21% to $1.3 billion.
The bottom line: Airbnb is betting that AI makes its app faster to build and easier to use. If the search test catches on, planning a trip could feel less like filling out a form and more like describing what you want out loud.
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