Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says AI writes 60% of its code—and sustaining ‘founder mode’ is the key to winning in the age of AI

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has never left “founder mode.” He prioritizes developing trust, attention to detail, and organization.

And in the age of AI, he argues companies need to keep that mentality and move more like startups to succeed.

“The winners of AI are going to be the companies that embrace transformation,” Chesky told CNBC last week.

“You might call it founder mode, not manager mode.” Chesky has long argued CEOs should stay focused on the details.

Now, with AI writing 60% of Airbnb’s new code and speeding up product development, he sees it as a way of keeping his Fortune 500 giant moving like a startup.

Chesky embodies founder mode when closely monitoring Airbnb employees’ progress on its AI initiatives, token usage, and overall output of the AI.

This attention to detail is what allows the company to pioneer the rise of consumer AI platforms.

“AI is the best thing to ever happen to Airbnb,” Chesky told investors on its most recent earnings call on Aug.

6.

“Today, we’re building, testing, and iterating faster than we could just a year ago.” Earlier this year, Chesky told investors AI helped to ship new improvements faster and reduce time from concept to launch by as much as 60%.

Now, fresh off a second-quarter earnings beat with $3.6 billion in revenue, Chesky said he’s planning to spend even more on AI tokens this year in a push to become an “AI-native company.” During the earnings call , Chesky pointed to greater efficiency with its AI-powered customer service tool that resolved 45% of user inquiries without human intervention.

He also revealed the company plans to test AI search.

“AI is accelerating this work across search, sign-up, checkout, and payments,” he said.

“By reducing friction across the guest journey, we are converting more traffic into bookings, and that’s become one of the biggest drivers of our growth.” Founder mode, not manager mode Founder mode took the internet by storm in 2024 when Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham published an essay dismantling conventional Silicon Valley management, inspired by Chesky’s talk at an event the fund hosted earlier that year.