Airbnb reveals that Artificial Intelligence writes 60% of its new code

During the presentation of results for the first quarter of 2026, Airbnb devoted an important part to explaining how it is incorporating artificial intelligence tools in different areas of the company. In particular, the firm said that 60% of the new code produced by its engineers during the period was written by IA.

This progress is in addition to what other major technology companies such as Google, Microsoft and Spotify have already reported, which also highlighted the accelerating role of AI in software development. CEO Brian Chesky noted that artificial intelligence is especially useful for creating tools for its API partners, those who manage properties with different systems

.

Partner promotion and tool development

“API partners say they want to be better hosts and need better tools. AI offers enormous momentum: where before perhaps a team of 20 engineers was needed, an engineer can now deploy agents to do much of the work under supervision. Adopting AI tools gives us room to create more software for API partners, accelerating jobs we didn't have resources for before,” Chesky explained

.

In this way, the company manages to generate more solutions faster and with less human resources than was possible before. This represents an important lever for scaling support to hosts using different platforms

.

In parallel, Airbnb has been expanding the use of AI in customer service for a year. Chesky said the bot now solves 40% of cases without the need to recruit a human operator, up from 33% earlier this year

.

Search and user experience challenges The company is also testing AI to enhance its search

function. However, the manager recognized the difficulties in applying these technologies in the travel and e-commerce sector. “I don't think anyone has yet figured out how to apply AI to travel or e-commerce,” he admitted

.

According to Chesky, the current design of chatbots presents four main problems: excess text in an environment that is more visual, lack of direct manipulation, difficulty comparing many options and the fact that most bookings are for several people, while chatbots work mainly individually and are not intended for maps.

These challenges explain why full implementation has not yet been achieved in sectors such as tourism. Despite this, the adoption of AI is already showing concrete results in internal productivity.

Financial results and new features

Financially, Airbnb reported a 3.9% increase in net profit, reaching $160 million. Revenues rose 18 percent to $2.7 billion compared to the same period last year. Booked nights grew by 9% to 156.2 million

.

In addition, the new “Book Now, Pay Later” feature represented almost 20% of the gross value of bookings in the quarter, showing another growth path for the platform.