Airbnb says AI speeds up feature development

Brian Chesky said AI cut launch times by up to 60% on some initiatives, while Airbnb is also testing AI search and expanding support automation.

Airbnb is using artificial intelligence far more heavily behind the scenes than in the app itself. The company says AI is helping it build and ship products faster, and it is now preparing an AI search test that will bring the technology closer to travelers and hosts. That matters because it shows how AI is changing not just what users see, but how digital services are developed and supported.

Even so, Airbnb is taking a cautious approach to consumer-facing AI. It has not rushed to swap its familiar search and filter tools for a chatbot-style interface, a sign that it sees both promise and risk in changing how people plan trips.

AI is accelerating Airbnb’s product work

During Airbnb’s second-quarter earnings call, co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said AI has made the company faster at turning ideas into live features. According to Chesky, the time from concept to launch has been reduced by as much as 60% across some key initiatives.

He also said Airbnb increased the number of features and improvements it shipped this year by nearly 80% compared with the same six months last year.

Earlier this year, Airbnb said AI was already writing 60% of its code. In the latest remarks, Chesky described it as a tool that helps the company build, test, and iterate more quickly than it could a year ago.

The company said AI has been useful in areas including search, sign-up, checkout, and payments. Airbnb has also used it to support hosts, including through a faster onboarding flow. According to IT-PUB News, those comments were part of the company’s latest earnings call discussion of how AI is being used across the business.

Airbnb will let users opt into AI search

The most visible change for users will come from Airbnb’s planned AI search test. Chesky said the company will finally begin testing AI search, but it is not forcing the new approach on customers who are used to the current search and filter system.

Instead, Airbnb is adding a toggle so users can choose AI search for themselves. In that mode, people can type in natural language and get results in a visual format.

Chesky said the responses could include AI-generated titles and conversational wording, while the product description page would show AI-generated highlights in real time and tailor them to the user.

That measured rollout reflects Airbnb’s view that a simple chatbot interface is not enough for travel use cases. The company has instead focused on AI for search, discovery, and support, where it believes the technology can be useful without changing the basic structure of the service.

Customer support is already heavily automated

While consumer-facing AI is still in testing, Airbnb has already rolled it out more broadly in customer support. The company launched its AI-powered bot in North America in 2025, then expanded it this year to more than 50 languages.

Airbnb also plans to make the bot available for voice calls later this year.

The company said nearly 45% of customer issues that begin with its AI agent are resolved without any human intervention. That has helped reduce support cost per booking by 16% year over year.

For a travel platform, that is a meaningful operational shift. Faster support and lower costs can improve efficiency, but they also raise the question of how much of a customer’s problem can be handled without a person stepping in.

Strong results give Airbnb room to keep investing

Airbnb’s AI push comes alongside a solid quarter. For the three months ended in June, the company reported revenue of $3.6 billion, up 17% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA rose 21% to $1.3 billion.

Those results suggest Airbnb has room to keep investing in product development and automation. The company is using AI in two ways at once: to speed up internal work and to reshape parts of the customer experience, though still in a limited and controlled way.

For users, the immediate impact may be subtle. They may never notice AI in the code behind the app, but they could soon see it in search results, listing descriptions, and support interactions. Whether that makes travel planning easier without making the service feel less familiar or less human is the tension running through Airbnb’s approach.