Brian Chesky interview: AI agents need their own operating system

Airbnb rolled out a new AI-powered search as part of its fall update, and co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky discussed the company's AI approach in a Zoom interview with TechCrunch. Chesky said he has not changed his view that chatbots are a poor fit for browsing or shopping because they surface a few options at a time and require multiple turns to reach a result. He also said Airbnb's current search version is not the final form and its interface will evolve.

Chesky described a desired interface as something between a chatbot and the first version Airbnb shipped. He said some tasks, such as booking a flight, should be fast and easy, while travel planning and browsing should be preserved for inspiration.

He identified a second problem: chatbots are built for one person and are not collaborative. Chesky said the company's task over the next three to six months is to explore interfaces enabling "multiplayer" AI that several people, such as a group planning a trip, can use together. He expects a mix of deterministic, pre-designed interfaces and generative ones, citing startups Monogram and Wabi as experimenting with generative interfaces.

On consumer AI agents such as Instinct and Muse, Chesky said Airbnb wants to make itself more agent-friendly and that agents could be good lead generators. He said agents will need robust software infrastructure on Airbnb's end. He described a future in which the Airbnb app becomes an agent, with agents in its explore tab, customer service and other areas, eventually including a macro Airbnb agent interoperable with other agents via MCP.

Chesky argued the industry lacks a true operating system built for AI, saying current AI apps run on iOS, macOS and Windows, which are not AI operating systems, and that ideally AI would be operable at the kernel level. He said the race is to be the primary AI agent and that no one is developing a full operating system software developer kit, citing ChatGPT's app store effort.

Chesky said he has used Airbnb on Muse and Instinct and that it does not work well, adding that consumer AI has not been cracked. He said two Silicon Valley misconceptions are that interfaces will disappear and that software will be fully generative, arguing a designer can prompt better software than a consumer. He said apps will likely remain central while Apple and Google control major platforms. On voice, Chesky said people will eventually speak to computers more than they type, that voice will be key for Airbnb search and customer service, and that the company plans to roll out voice agents this fall. He also said AI has helped the company ship features faster and reduced the meetings he needs to gather information.