Airbnb Co-founder Brian Chesky: India is the Future, AI Accelerates Expansion

Airbnb Inc co-founder Brian Chesky said it is going 'bigger, sooner and faster' in India, betting artificial intelligence and a surge in young travelers will turn one of its most underpenetrated markets into one of its biggest markets globally.

“What comes to my mind when I hear India is the future. It’s one of the fastest growing markets in the world. It’s one of the or maybe the largest concentrations of Gen Z people in the world," Chesky told ET. “We are really very serious about the market. I think it’ll be one of the biggest countries in the world for Airbnb.”

The San Francisco-based company now counts India among its top 10 priority markets globally and employs more people there than anywhere outside the US. The company's domestic business in India is expanding about 50% year-on-year, even as the company’s overall penetration remains far below markets such as the US, UK and France.

However, India has long been a paradox for global consumer goods and internet companies which have strong brand recall, but relatively modest monetization. Chesky acknowledged the mismatch. “We probably should have done more earlier,” he said. “But the opportunity didn’t go away.”

“Payment flexibility was a very, very important one,” Chesky said of Indian consumers, adding that domestic travelers in India remain more price-sensitive than their global peers. Unlike Germany, where travelers prioritize sustainability and cleanliness, or Brazil, where installment payments dominate purchasing behavior, Indian users tend to focus heavily on value.

The renewed push comes as Airbnb attempts its biggest expansion beyond home rentals since its founding in 2008. The company unveiled a slate of new services including grocery delivery, car rentals and airport pickups as it pushes toward becoming a broader travel and lifestyle platform.

“It took us 16 years to figure out how to really perfect homes. It took us two years to figure out how to do service experiences. It took us nine months to do groceries, three months to do car rentals. It took us two months to airport pickup and luggage storage,” Chesky said. “Part of it’s AI just makes everything a lot faster, lighter, and cheaper.”

The move comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently urged citizens to curb discretionary spending, including travel, amid ongoing global instability.

Chesky, however, downplayed the long-term impact, and said travel tends to rebound quickly even after shocks such as the pandemic, inflation surges or wars.

“People temporarily stop traveling, but they don’t permanently stop traveling,” he said.

Airbnb believes India’s culture naturally aligns with the company’s core idea of hosting strangers in homes. “There’s the Indian hospitality saying, ‘guest is God. I think hospitality is rooted in India.”

AI is becoming increasingly central to that strategy. Chesky said the technology is reshaping customer service, operations and software development across Airbnb as Silicon Valley races to integrate generative AI tools into everyday consumer products.

Artificial intelligence is accelerating that expansion, according to Chesky. “Sixty percent of our code is now written or authored by AI,” he said, adding that the technology is helping Airbnb launch products faster and overhaul customer support.

The biggest immediate impact is customer support, particularly for a platform operating across millions of hosts, languages and geographies.

“Airbnb customer support is a really hard problem. We don’t have a hotel desk, front desk. The guests and hosts often come from different countries, speak different languages. The AI has seen it maybe dozens of times, maybe hundreds of times, maybe even millions of times, and so it can instantly be a first line of defense for many tickets,” he added.

The comments come as global technology companies increasingly view India as a critical growth market because of its young internet population and rising middle class.

Chesky, however, questioned whether there is a fixed window everyone must rush into, suggesting that new opportunities will keep emerging.

"There’s a frenetic system, there’s FOMO if you’re missing out. There’s a bit of a rat race, and I think that’s because there’s this sense that it’s a land grab and we have to get there first. It feels like people are doing things out of fear. It might just be that you never stop, it may never end, he added.

Chesky also argued that the broader AI boom is still being underestimated despite mounting hype around startups and investment flows.

“I don’t think people are overestimating the scale of AI’s impact on the world. They’re probably underestimating it, even the biggest proponents of AI,” said Chesky, and stopped short of calling Airbnb a super app but suggested that is ultimately where the company is headed. “Ask me that question again in two years,” he said.