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Airbnb poaches former Meta GenAI leader to be new technology chief

Airbnb touched Ahmed Al-Dahleformer prolific head of artificial intelligence Meta PlatformsCEO Brian Chesky announced Wednesday as the new chief technology officer.

“We’re really excited with Ahmad because we have the opportunity to do AI for travel right, to do AI for e-commerce right,” Chesky told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Al-Dahle previously led Meta’s former GenAI unit and was later appointed co-head of AI products when the social media company split the unit after developers received the Llama 4 model poorly. Meta later hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang as part of a $14.3 billion deal to bolster its AI strategy.

Former technology chief Ari Balogh resigned in December after more than seven years at the company. Joined Airbnb in 2018 Google.

Airbnb is in the midst of a major transformation as it tries to move beyond its reputation as a short-term rental platform.

In May, the company overhauled its app, bringing services such as catering and personal training to the platform. The company later added direct messaging and updated its AI chatbot.

Chesky told Sorkin: “The AI works 24/7, it speaks every language, it can learn from millions of customer actions to help you. … And with Ahmad, we’ll be able to move down the funnel to travel search.” “And imagine if one day Airbnb had a travel concierge, a friend who would be there for the entire trip. That’s where we’re going.”

Chesky, a close friend of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, also shared their desire to integrate ChatGPT into the platform. But he told CNBC in October that the chatbot was “not robust enough.”

Chesky wrote in his post that Al-Dahle fits into the company’s mission of using its technology and artificial intelligence to enhance human connection.

“He shares our belief that technology should serve people (rather than the other way around) and that its ultimate purpose is to bring us closer together,” he said.

Al-Dahle previously spent 16 years here. Appleworks with special projects and imaging and sensing technology groups. HE graduate from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

“He combines big ideas with technical depth, highly values design, and believes engineering should be a true strategic partner in everything we do,” Chesky wrote in a blog post.