Airbnb CEO: 'Two Types of People' Won't Make the Shift to AI

According to Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, employees shouldn’t be worried about AI playing a larger role in the workplace. Instead, they should make sure they’re evolving alongside it. 

Speaking on the Invest Like the Best podcast, Brian said there are two types of people who “will not make the shift,” to an AI enabled workplace: “pure people managers,” and people who “don’t want to change and evolve”. 

These comments come as AI makes widespread changes to the world of work – with business leaders offering a mixed view of what this will mean for employees. Some leaders, such as NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, have said the implementation of AI will make workers “busier than ever,” while others, such as Amrita Ahuja, CEO of Block, have said that they believe that job cuts due to the technology are an “inevitability”.

‘Pure people managers’ at risk

As AI changes the ways people work, Brian believes that managers will need to rethink their approach to leading teams.

“I don’t think people managers will have any value in the future,” he said – explaining that by “people managers,” he means “people that only manage people”.

“You can’t just be these managers where you’re people’s therapists, and you’re just doing meetings, you’re doing one-on-ones,” he continued. 

Instead, he believes that leaders within a company will need to be a “hybrid people manager,” – taking on a more technical role and becoming more involved in the context of their work. 

Some companies are already reworking their company structures to reflect this shift. 

As part of its plans to lay off 14% of its workforce, Coinbase has announced that it is flattening its organisational structure – so there are just five layers below CEO Brian Armstrong. 

This, the Coinbase CEO says, will help create more agile teams and ensure that every leader in the company is a “strong and active contributor,” as he believes that “managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams”.

AI: The ‘best thing that ever happened’

This is not the first time the Airbnb CEO has taken a pro-AI stance. 

In a February CNBC interview, Brian said that AI was “the best thing that ever happened to Airbnb”.

AI has already reshaped the way Airbnb operates, with its use of the technology in customer service operations improving customer satisfaction scores, according to CFO Ellie Mertz. She told Fortune that AI “gets guests and hosts what they need very quickly,” and that the company is continuing its plans to invest in the technology. 

This continued investment is helping Airbnb ensure it remains a key player in the industry, according to Brian. 

“The 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,” Brian continued. “And if you don’t change, you’re going to be disrupted.”

AI, Brian said, is a structural shift – and the way companies approach it will play a direct role in future business competitiveness. 

“If you don’t disrupt yourself, someone else will,” he warned. “And we’re not going to allow people to disrupt ourselves. 

“We’re going to disrupt ourselves first.”