Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky warns two types of people won’t survive the AI era: ‘pure people managers’ and workers who resist change

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 CEO Brian Chesky, the biggest risk to professionals isn’t the technology itself—it’s refusing to evolve alongside it. And in his view, there are two kinds of employees who “will not survive the age of AI.”

“The two types of people who will not make the shift to AI are pure people managers, and people that are rigid and don’t want to change and evolve,” Chesky said on the Invest Like The Best podcast earlier this year.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei previously warned AI could disrupt half of entry-level white-collar work (although his tune changed this year ), and Microsoft’s AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, has offered an even more aggressive timeline , estimating most professional work could be replaced within 12 to 18 months.

But Chesky presented a more optimistic view of the future, with the caveat that adapting is key for success.

Chesky explained that as AI transforms company structures and how staffers do their jobs, bosses need to adapt to the new era. He called out people managers in particular—now, every higher-up will have to be a “hybrid people manager” or “manager IC” (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 “context” of the work to hold onto their jobs.

“I don’t think people managers will have any value in the future. When I mean people managers, [I mean] people that only manage people,” Chesky continued. “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.”

The Airbnb CEO cited former Apple 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’s good to build relationships with staff: have routine check-ins, and go out to dinner with direct reports. But now, simply supervising people won’t cut it—it’s all about managing employees through the work.

And any rank-and-file worker who believes they can evade the new technology won’t have an easier time in the AI era either, Chesky predicted. Luckily, the CEO said, it’s incredibly easy to master the tools and keep up with the times, so long as professionals have a “growth mindset.” And the sentiment echoes a slew of tech leaders telling anxious workers that the chatbots and AI agents won’t take their jobs—but someone who leverages the software will.

This isn’t the first time Chesky and other tech leaders have doubled down on the importance of adapting to an AI-driven world.