Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky hails ‘AI-native’ shift for gains, plans higher token spend

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has credited aggressive artificial intelligence (AI) integration for the financial turnaround as the company shares jumped 15% after the home-sharing platform delivered one of its strongest quarterly growth reports in years. In an interview with CNBC, Chesky stated that Airbnb plans to spend significantly more on AI computing power and model inference this year than initially budgeted, noting that operational return on investment far outweighs infrastructure costs.“I think now it's safe to say AI is the best thing to have happened to Airbnb. I think we're becoming an AI-native company, and I think that is probably the number one explanation for our results,” Chesky was quoted as saying.Faster product releases with flat headcountThe company’s pivot toward an “AI-native” operational model is delivering measurable internal efficiency gains, the report said.Airbnb has reduced product development cycles by approximately 60%, allowing teams to ship 80% more features year-over-year.