Airbnb CEO Uses AI System to Cut Meetings in Half

Airbnb CEO builds AI-powered company intelligence system

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has developed an internal AI system that he says solves a fundamental problem facing many executives: not knowing what's actually happening inside their own organizations.

Speaking at the Skift Global Forum on Wednesday, Chesky described building what he calls an "intelligence corpus" or "brain" trained on 18,000 Keynote slides, 50,000 Google documents, and extensive company data. The system, combined with custom dashboards, gives him comprehensive visibility into operations without requiring constant meetings.

"Most of us CEOs of big companies don't really know what the hell's going on in our companies, and so we have these things called meetings, which are just for us to figure out what's going on," Chesky said during his virtual appearance.

The result: Chesky has cut his meeting schedule in half. "This intelligence layer means I now have total information," he explained.

Why it matters

Chesky's approach represents a practical application of AI that addresses a core management challenge—information asymmetry between executives and operational reality. Rather than using AI for customer-facing products alone, he's deployed it to fundamentally restructure how leadership stays informed. This internal-first strategy could influence how other organizations think about AI implementation beyond external automation.

Shipping 600 features with AI assistance

The AI transformation at Airbnb extends beyond executive information management. Chesky reported that the company shipped over 600 features this year, nearly double last year's output. Nearly half of customer service requests now go through AI systems.

Chesky stated his goal for Airbnb is to become an "AI-native company," describing the organization as "pretty much" there. He said the entire executive team has been "AI-pilled" and that he personally committed to achieving the same fluency with AI as someone who grew up with the technology. "I never wanted to be this person that it passed me by," he said.

The company plans to launch an AI agent next year with an interface "much richer than a chatbot" that will handle trip booking.

Broader CEO embrace of AI

Chesky's aggressive AI adoption reflects wider executive sentiment. A KPMG survey of 100 CEOs at large US companies found that 77 percent believe generative AI's disruptive potential over the next five to 10 years is likely underhyped, despite current overhype. Nearly 80 percent are allocating at least 5 percent of their 2026 capital budgets to AI.

These details were first reported by Business Insider.