Airbnb hires Meta's AI leader Ahmad Al-Dahle as CTO to transform travel with artificial intelligence

Airbnb Names Meta's Head of Generative AI as Chief Technology Officer

Airbnb Inc. has hired a former Meta Platforms Inc. executive as its new chief technology officer, as the short-term rental company is investing to include more artificial intelligence and personalization elements into its service this year. Ahmad Al-Dahle, who most recently led generative AI at Meta and the team behind its Llama open-source models, joins the company Wednesday and will oversee its engineering and data science teams. Al-Dahle succeeds Ari Balogh, who stepped aside from his role in December after seven years at the company.

Airbnb poaches former Meta GenAI leader to be new technology chief

"With Ahmad, we are really, really excited because we have an opportunity to do AI right for travel, to do AI right for ecommerce," Chesky told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. Al-Dahle previously ran Meta's older GenAI unit and was later appointed co-head of AI products when the social media company divided the unit after developers poorly received its Llama 4 model. Meta later hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang as part of a $14.3 billion deal to bolster its AI strategy. Former tech chief Ari Balogh stepped down in December after more than seven years at the company. He joined Airbnb in 2018 from Google. Airbnb is in the midst of a major transformation as it attempts to push beyond its reputation as a short-term rental platform.

Airbnb Names Meta Generative AI Head Ahmad Al-Dahle as CTO | AIM

Al-Dahle led the Generative AI group at Meta and oversaw development of the Llama family of open-source AI models. Airbnb has appointed Ahmad Al-Dahle as its new chief technology officer, effective January 14, 2026, the company announced on Wednesday. Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said Al-Dahle would lead the company's technology and engineering efforts at a time when AI is reshaping consumer platforms. "Ahmad is one of the world's leading experts in AI," Chesky said in a statement. "He connects big ideas with technical depth, highly values design, and believes engineering should be a true strategic partner in everything we do." Al-Dahle joins Airbnb from Meta, where he most recently led the Generative AI group and oversaw development of the Llama family of open-source AI models. Chesky said the models have been downloaded more than one billion times, with over 60,000 derivative versions created by developers globally. On his appointment as CTO, Al-Dahle said model capabilities were advancing quickly, and the focus now was on using them to build products people love that help them connect with real people and places. Before Meta, Al-Dahle spent more than a decade at Apple. He joined the company in 2005 while studying engineering at the University of Waterloo and later worked full-time on core technologies behind the iPhone's display and multitouch systems. He also contributed to multiple Apple devices, including the first Apple Watch, and in 2014 led Apple's autonomous technology group focused on AI systems for its self-driving car project. In 2020, Al-Dahle moved to Meta to lead mapping and applied AI within Reality Labs. Following the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, he founded Meta's Generative AI group in early 2023 and led efforts to integrate AI features across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In other news, Meta has begun a fresh round of layoffs in its Reality Labs division this week, cutting roughly 10% of the unit's workforce, or more than 1,000 roles. Yann LeCun, Meta's former chief AI scientist, credited Al-Dahle with shaping the company's generative AI push and accelerating open-source AI adoption. "Running the GenAI organisation at Meta was no small feat," LeCun said. He added that open-sourcing Llama-2 and subsequent models under Al-Dahle's leadership "jump-started an entire industry" and helped "unlock the idea of open-source foundation models for the broader AI community." Notably, LeCun also left Meta recently to found his own AI startup, Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs, where he serves as executive chair.

Airbnb Picks Meta AI Vet Ahmad Al-Dahle as New Tech Chief | PYMNTS.com

Ahmad Al-Dahle, who previously oversaw Meta's generative artificial intelligence (AI) efforts, has been hired as chief technology officer of the short-term rental platform the company announced Wednesday (Jan. 14). "Ahmad is joining Airbnb at a pivotal moment," CEO Brian Chesky wrote in a company-wide email and shared to the company's blog. "In a world becoming more artificial, people are craving what's real: real connection with real people in the real world. No company is better positioned to meet this need than Airbnb. We have a rare opportunity, and responsibility, to shape how people travel, live, and interact with AI in a way that strengthens human connection and draws people into the physical world, not away from it." Al-Dahle joined Meta in 2020 to head mapping and applied AI within the company's Reality Labs division. After ChatGPT's debut, he founded the company's generative AI group and led the launch of Meta's Llama AI models, while also leading teams responsible for developing AI features for Meta's main social media platforms. Speaking to Bloomberg News Wednesday, Chesky discussed the company's plans to embed AI into its search function. "What that means is moving away from an anonymous customer just searching, and making sure everyone's search, everyone's conversation is unique to them and that we take into account all prior conversations we ever had with you, all information we have." he said. "It's not going to look like old search, it's not going to look like a chatbot. It's going to have to marry the best of both worlds." During a speech last year, Airbnb Chief Business Officer Dave Stephenson described the company's plan to embed AI throughout its operations to transform guest and homeowner experiences, creating a "concierge in your pocket." AI is an "incredibly high priority," Dave Stephenson said at the Human[x] conference in Las Vegas, adding that the technology "pervades everything we do." More recently, the company began using machine learning-powered "anti-party technology" to identify bookings that could be a greater risk for a disruptive party. When the technology finds a potentially risky booking for an entire home listing by examining "hundreds of signals," it either blocks the would-be booking or redirects it to other types of listings, such as private rooms or hotel rooms, Airbnb said last month.

Airbnb Appoints Former Meta AI Executive CTO

Airbnb named Ahmad Al-Dahle, a former leader of AI at Meta, as the company's new chief technology officer. Al-Dahle led generative AI at Meta, where he headed the team behind Meta's Llama AI models. He also previously worked at Apple, helping to develop the iPhone's display and multitouch systems and the AI systems for the company's self-driving car project. Airbnb said the addition of Al-Dahle would help it "shape how people travel, live, and interact with AI in a way that strengthens human connection." "He connects big ideas with technical depth, highly values design, and believes engineering should be a true strategic partner in everything we do," said Chief Executive Brian Chesky. Airbnb is currently implementing AI agents into its business to improve customer service, personalize recommendations and facilitate trip planning.