Brian Chesky delivered a pointed message to corporate managers this week: get hands-on or get left behind. During Airbnb’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call on Thursday, the CEO revealed that artificial intelligence now generates nearly 60% of the code produced by the company’s engineers — a figure he estimated is roughly double the industry average.
AI Reshaping Engineering and Support
“That means our teams are shipping more features and iterating more quickly,” Chesky told investors on the May 7 call, according to Business Insider. The company reported revenue up 18% year-over-year to $2.7 billion, with gross booking value rising 19% to $29 billion. Chesky also disclosed that AI is now resolving more than 40% of customer support issues without human intervention, up from one-third in Q4, helping reduce cost per booking by approximately 10% year-over-year.
The efficiency gains are translating into improved profitability. Adjusted EBITDA rose 24% year-over-year to $519 million, and the company raised its full-year 2026 guidance, now expecting revenue growth in the low-to-mid teens with an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 35%.
‘People Managers’ Put on Notice
Chesky’s comments on the earnings call echoed remarks he made days earlier on the “Invest Like The Best” podcast. “I don’t think people managers will have any value in the future,” he said. “People who have lots of recurring one-on-ones are not going to survive. That kind of leadership style is not going to work. You need to have context.”
He urged leaders to engage directly with the work itself rather than merely overseeing others. “You don’t manage the people, you manage the work,” Chesky said. Business Insider reported that many of Airbnb’s design and engineering managers are now “going back to coding or using Claude Code”.
A Broader Industry Shift
Chesky is not alone in this stance. The same week, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced the elimination of “pure manager” roles alongside a 14% staff reduction, writing that the company would flatten its org structure to five layers maximum below the CEO. Block chief Jack Dorsey wrote earlier this year that “there is no need for a permanent middle management layer”. An Airbnb spokesperson told Business Insider the company has not announced planned layoffs, though Chesky hinted at future structural changes to team organization during the earnings call.
