Brian Chesky: People Who Know What to Build With AI Will Pull Ahead

In 2025, Airbnb is shipping 80% more features than a year ago, and Brian Chesky attributes most of that acceleration to AI. Speaking with host Evelyn Chen, the co-founder and CEO described how the company is becoming "AI native" — but not by forcing chatbots onto users. Instead, Chesky argued that the real strategic question in an AI-powered world is not whether you can build something, but whether you know what to build.

Why the Chatbot Is the Wrong Interface for Travel

Chesky drew a sharp distinction between agents and chatbots. "A chatbot is a user interface," he said. "An agent is an evolution of an application — it's more intelligent, understands you, and leverages the power of AI." The confusion between the two, he argued, has led many companies to force conversational interfaces onto tasks that do not suit them. Travel, for Chesky, is one of those tasks.

Airbnb's design challenge was to create something "chat-like" — natural language input that feels conversational — without losing the visual, browse-based, multiplayer experience that travelers actually need. "Chatbots aren't really great for shopping," he said. "You want things to be inspiration-based and browse-based. It's multiplayer. The average Airbnb booking involves three people traveling together."