{"id":944789,"date":"2026-05-07T23:11:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T23:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/944789\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T23:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T23:11:28","slug":"airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-warns-two-types-of-people-wont-survive-the-ai-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/944789\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky warns two types of people won\u2019t survive the AI era"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tech leaders have spent the past few years warning workers that AI will threaten every single job, from computer programming and customer service to law and finance. But according to Airbnb<\/a> CEO Brian Chesky, the biggest risk to professionals isn\u2019t the technology itself\u2014it\u2019s refusing to evolve alongside it. And in his view, there are two kinds of employees who \u201cwill not survive the age of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two types of people who will not make the shift to AI are pure people managers, and people that [sic] are rigid and don\u2019t want to change and evolve,\u201d Chesky said recently on<\/a> the Invest Like The Best podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has previously warned<\/a> that AI could disrupt half of entry-level white-collar work, and Microsoft\u2019s AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, has offered an even more aggressive timeline<\/a>, estimating that most professional work could be replaced within 12 to 18 months.<\/p>\n

But Chesky presented a more optimistic view of the future, with the caveat that adapting is key for success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chesky explained that as AI transforms company structures and how staffers do their jobs, bosses need to adapt to the new era. And he called out people managers in particular\u2014now, every higher-up will have to be a \u201chybrid people manager\u201d or \u201cmanager IC\u201d (individual contributor) to succeed. That means bosses will have to adopt a more technical approach and maintain a connection to the end product, rather than focusing solely on team leadership. They need to actually be involved in the \u201ccontext\u201d of the work to hold onto their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people managers will have any value in the future. When I mean people managers, [I mean] people that only manage people,\u201d Chesky continued. \u201cYou can\u2019t just be these managers where you\u2019re people\u2019s therapists, and you\u2019re just doing meetings, you\u2019re doing one-on-ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Airbnb CEO cited former Apple<\/a> chief design officer Jony Ive as a prime example; the British executive struck the right balance between product design and team leadership. Chesky said it\u2019s good to build relationships with staff: have routine check-ins, and go out to dinner with direct reports. But now, simply supervising people won\u2019t cut it\u2014it\u2019s all about managing employees through the work.<\/p>\n

And any rank-and-file worker who believes they can evade the new technology won\u2019t have an easier time in the AI era either, Chesky predicted. Luckily, the CEO said, it\u2019s incredibly easy to master the tools and keep up with the times, so long as professionals have a \u201cgrowth mindset.\u201d And the sentiment echoes a slew of tech leaders telling anxious workers that the chatbots and AI agents won\u2019t take their jobs\u2014but someone who leverages the software will.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The CEOs who say tech-savvy workers will thrive in the AI era<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Chesky and other tech leaders have doubled down on the importance of adapting to an AI-driven world.<\/p>\n

The Airbnb CEO has said that AI has been instrumental to the success of his $84.4 billion short-term rental company. And the billionaire founder is telling other business leaders that the tech isn\u2019t just a plus\u2014it\u2019s a necessity for success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a business standpoint, I think AI is the best thing that ever happened to Airbnb,\u201d Chesky told CNBC<\/a> in an interview earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe founder-led companies and the companies that are prepared to change and transform are the companies that are going to benefit from AI, because AI means everyone changes,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t change, you\u2019re going to be disrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nvidia<\/a> leader Jensen Huang has also popularized the idea that AI won\u2019t<\/a> be what swipes roles from humans\u2014instead, it\u2019ll be tech-savvy talent that takes over jobs. And echoing Chesky, the leader of the $5.05 trillion GPU giant said that as AI spreads into every corner of every industry, no worker will be exempt from keeping up with the tools. It could even mean the difference between holding down a stable gig and getting the boot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable,\u201d Huang said at the<\/a> Milken Institute\u2019s Global Conference in 2025. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you\u2019re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would recommend 100% of everybody take advantage of AI,\u201d Jensen advised. \u201cDon\u2019t be that person who ignores this technology and as a result, loses your job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of streaming empire Netflix<\/a>, has also admitted that the tech will impact entertainment jobs. But just like Huang, he doesn\u2019t believe the tools will be taking over the call sheet. Instead, the creatives who lean into AI will be better off than those who don\u2019t in the intensely competitive industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that an A.I. program is going to write a better screenplay than a great writer, or is going to replace a great performance,\u201d Sarandos told The New York Times<\/a> in 2024. \u201cA.I. is not going to take your job. The person who uses A.I. well might take your job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tech leaders have spent the past few years warning workers that AI will threaten every single job, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3163],"tags":[4376,323,4809,15484,1942,92362,263817,51,3857,3858,8441,17112,3374,51300,40614,897,118607,451,3359,22793,326,53,26503,16,15,26298],"class_list":{"0":"post-944789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-advice","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-ai-agents","11":"tag-airbnb","12":"tag-artificial-intelligence","13":"tag-bosses","14":"tag-brian-chesky","15":"tag-business","16":"tag-career-advice","17":"tag-careers","18":"tag-chatbots","19":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","20":"tag-employment","21":"tag-executives","22":"tag-jensen-huang","23":"tag-jobs","24":"tag-managers","25":"tag-netflix","26":"tag-nvidia","27":"tag-skills","28":"tag-tech","29":"tag-technology","30":"tag-ted-sarandos","31":"tag-uk","32":"tag-united-kingdom","33":"tag-workers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116535825929291688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}