Airbnb reported one of its strongest growth quarters in years, sending shares up 15% and raising its full-year outlook. CEO Brian Chesky is directly crediting artificial intelligence for the turnaround: product-development time has been cut by roughly 60%, feature releases have increased by 80% year over year, while headcount remains flat. AI is also driving more bookings, making it easier for hosts to list and price homes, and 45% of guests who interact with Airbnb’s AI agent never need to speak with a human. The company hired Ahmad Al-Dahle, Meta’s former head of generative AI, as chief technology officer in January and plans to spend a lot more on AI tokens this year than originally forecast, citing highly favorable returns on investment.
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