Airbnb has named Ahmad Al-Dahle as its new Chief Technology Officer, effective January 14, 2026, marking a major leadership appointment as artificial intelligence becomes central to the evolution of global consumer platforms. The move underscores Airbnb’s intent to deepen its technology and engineering capabilities at a time when AI is increasingly shaping how users discover, book, and experience travel.
Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said Al-Dahle will lead the company’s technology and engineering efforts at a pivotal moment for the business. “Ahmad is one of the world’s leading experts in AI,” Chesky said. “He connects big ideas with technical depth, highly values design, and believes engineering should be a true strategic partner in everything we do.” Chesky’s comments highlight Airbnb’s ambition to integrate AI not just as an internal efficiency tool, but as a core driver of product innovation and user experience.
Al-Dahle joins Airbnb from Meta, where he most recently led the Generative AI group and oversaw the development of the Llama family of open-source AI models. Under his leadership, the Llama models gained widespread traction across the developer community. Chesky noted that the models have been downloaded more than one billion times, with over 60,000 derivative versions created by developers worldwide, reinforcing Al-Dahle’s impact on the broader AI ecosystem.
Commenting on his appointment, Al-Dahle emphasised the importance of translating technical advances into meaningful products. He said that while AI model capabilities are progressing rapidly, the real challenge now lies in applying them to build products people love and that help them connect with real people and places — a philosophy that aligns closely with Airbnb’s community-driven brand.
Before his tenure at Meta, Al-Dahle spent more than a decade at Apple, where he contributed to foundational technologies behind the iPhone’s display and multitouch systems, worked on the first Apple Watch, and later led Apple’s autonomous technology group. At Meta, he went on to play a central role in shaping the company’s generative AI strategy.
Reacting to the appointment, @Yann LeCun met credited Al-Dahle’s leadership at Meta, saying, “Running the GenAI organisation at Meta was no small feat.” He added that open-sourcing the Llama 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.”
With Al-Dahle at the helm of its technology organisation, Airbnb is positioning itself to harness AI in ways that enhance trust, creativity, and real-world connection at global scale.
