Strategy And Planning

Airbnb says AI now writes 60% of its code as tech firms flatten teams

May 11, 2026
www.ETHRWorld.com
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  • Published On May 11, 2026 at 11:34 PM IST

< />Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky, during the company’s Thursday earnings call, revealed that nearly 60 per cent of the code produced by Airbnb engineers in the latest quarter was written using AI tools.<br /><br />“That means our teams are shipping more features and iterating more quickly,” Chesky said.<br /><br /><!– PROMOSLOT_M –>He added that AI has become especially useful in building tools for Airbnb’s API partners, which manage properties through external software systems.<br /><br />“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. Adopting AI tools gives us leverage to build more software for API partners, accelerating work we previously did not have resources for,” Chesky said.<br /><br /><!– PROMOSLOT_M –><div class=” article-detail-ad-slot=”” captionrendered=”1″ data-src=”https://etimg.etb2bimg.com/photo/131021450.cms” height=”442″ loading=”eager” src=”https://hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com/images/default.jpg” width=”590″></img></p> </div> <p>The company has also expanded AI use in customer support. According to Chesky, Airbnb’s AI support bot now resolves 40 per cent of customer issues without passing them to a human agent, up from roughly 33 per cent earlier this year.</p> <h3></br>AI’s impact on management structures</h3> <p>Chesky is the latest CEO to highlight how much coding work is now being handled by AI systems.</p> <p>However, he also suggested that managers will increasingly need coding skills as AI becomes more common inside companies.</p> <p>“I’m seeing, like many of our design managers and engineering managers, going back to coding or using Claude Code,” he said.</p> <p>Still, Chesky stopped short of confirming whether Airbnb planned management cuts, saying, “What the implications are about how we structure our teams in the future, it is way too early to say.”</p> <p>Several technology firms have been reducing layers of management in favour of flatter structures. Last month, Twitter (now X) cofounder Jack Dorsey warned that AI could replace middle managers and said companies can operate without traditional hierarchies.</p> <p>Amazon CEO Andy Jassy too has long supported cutting middle-management. In an interview with Bloomberg last year, he said: “You add a lot of people and you end up with a lot of middle managers. And those middle managers, all well-intended, want to put their fingerprint on everything.”</p> <p>Consulting firm McKinsey & Company has also recommended that businesses use AI agents to streamline operations and reduce the need for managers.</p> <p>Recently, Shopify president Harley Finkelstein said that 50 per cent of the company’s code was generated by AI, while Google said the figure at its business had reached 75 per cent.</p> <p>Earlier this week, Coinbase announced plans to cut its workforce by 14 per cent. Chief executive Brian Armstrong wrote on X: “We are flattening our org structure to 5 layers max below CEO/COO.”</p> <h3></br>Challenges remain for AI in travel</h3> <p>Airbnb is also testing AI-powered search features, although Chesky admitted the technology still struggles in travel and ecommerce settings.</p> <p>“I do not think anyone has figured out AI for travel or ecommerce yet […] The design of a chatbot, as currently constructed, does not work for travel or e-commerce,” he said.</p> <p>He pointed to several problems with current chatbot systems, including “too much text”, weak comparison tools, limited visual interaction and the difficulty of planning trips involving multiple people.</p> <p>Chesky also suggested that managers would increasingly need coding skills as AI becomes more common inside companies.</p> <p>“I’m seeing, like many of our design managers and engineering managers, going back to coding or using Claude Code,” he said.</p> <p>However, he stopped short of confirming whether Airbnb planned management cuts, saying, “What the implications are about how we structure our teams in the future, it is way too early to say.”</p> <h3></br>Airbnb financials</h3> <p>Airbnb reported first-quarter net income of $160 million, up 3.9 per cent from a year earlier.</p> <p>Revenue rose 18 per cent to $2.7 billion, while nights booked increased 9 per cent to 156.2 million.</p> <p>The company also said its “Reserve now, pay later” option accounted for almost 20 per cent of gross booking value during the quarter.</p> <div> <div> <ul> <li><a href=ETtech

  • Published On May 11, 2026 at 11:34 PM IST

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