A large part of Airbnb’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call focused on the company’s use of artificial intelligence tools for coding, customer support and search functions.
The company said 60% of the code produced by its engineers during the quarter was written by AI tools, reflecting similar statements from firms including Google, Microsoft and Spotify on the growing role of AI in software development.
Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky said the company had found AI particularly useful in developing tools for API partners managing properties through different software systems.
“API partners say they want to be better hosts and need better tools. 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,” Chesky said.
He added that the use of AI tools had enabled Airbnb to build more software for API partners and speed up projects that previously lacked sufficient resources.
Airbnb has gradually widened the use of AI in customer support over the past year. Chesky said the company’s AI support bot now handles 40% of customer issues without referring them to a human agent, compared with around 33% earlier this year.
The company has also tested AI-powered search tools, although Chesky acknowledged that AI systems still faced difficulties in the travel and e-commerce sectors.
“I do not think anyone has figured out AI for travel or e-commerce yet,” he said, pointing to problems including excessive text, weak comparison tools and the limitations of chatbot interfaces for bookings involving several people.
Airbnb said net income rose 3.9% to $160 million in the first quarter, while revenue increased 18% to $2.7 billion from a year earlier.
The company said nights booked climbed 9% to 156.2 million during the quarter. Its “Reserve now, pay later” feature accounted for almost 20% of gross booking value in the period.
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