# AI lets designers take on product and engineering work

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/ai-lets-designers-take-on-product-and-engineering-work/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Brian Chesky](https://realalpha.app/people/brian-chesky/) · Brian Chesky is CEO of Airbnb. · Built Airbnb from its first hosted stays into a global community with over five million hosts.
- Host: [John Coogan](https://realalpha.app/people/john-coogan/) · Co-host, TBPN · Co-founded Soylent and Lucy; OpenAI bought his show TBPN in April 2026.
- Host: [Jordi Hays](https://realalpha.app/people/jordi-hays/) · Co-host, TBPN · Founded Branded Native; co-founded fintech Capital, which Rho bought.
- Show: TBPN
- Episode: [Airbnb CEO on Why AI Will Create a New Era of Consumer Products](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/), May 8, 2026
- Moment: 22:54 to 26:21 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/ai-lets-designers-take-on-product-and-engineering-work/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/?t=1374

## Quote

> “I think if **designers sit out**, what you're going to see is engineers and product managers designing for them.”
> — [Brian Chesky](https://realalpha.app/people/brian-chesky/) at [25:16](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/?t=1516) · TBPN

## Takeaways

1. Late adoption of web design widened the gap between design and engineering.
2. Product management filled a void after designers stayed with print.
3. AI lets designers prototype interfaces and write front-end code.

## About this segment

Brian Chesky links today's design gap to web design's late start, when product managers filled the void. He argues AI lets designers build across product and code instead of ceding that work.

From “Airbnb CEO on Why AI Will Create a New Era of Consumer Products”, May 8, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/)

## Transcript

From the transcript TBPN publishes with the episode.

[22:57](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/?t=1377) Yeah. On that note, how are you talking to or how would you talk to designers or RISD students about applying nontechnical skill sets or non AI disciplines, non computer science backgrounds to consumer? The reason I ask you is I feel like there's a lot of pushback against AI in design communities, in colleges right now broadly. AI is not particularly popular, and there's a lot of fear of job loss. But at the same time, you know, I'm sure, like, the tools have changed throughout the history.

[23:41](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/?t=1421) And there's an and I feel like you believe that there's an incredible opportunity, but I'm worried that some people are not jumping on that opportunity because they have hesitations about various, oh, well, does this displace this tool or what you know, how was this made or, you know, is this the right tool for the job? Should I even be using this?

[24:03](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/?t=1443) Yeah. I'm really worried that an entire generation of designers, artists and creative people are going to decide to kind of sit out AI. And I think it's the biggest opportunity for creative people in my lifetime. By the way, this is not the first time designers were late. We we creatives and designers were really late to the Internet and web. So going back thirty, thirty five years, most of the prestigious designers did not get into so called web design. Web design was considered a lower tier, lower status design and they stayed with print, all the established people. And so they did not really chase design. What ended up happening was because you had a lot of these really excellent designers that did not go into web design, I think what happened was a lot of there were a lot of good people that became web designers, but I think there became a gap between web design and engineering. You had people that maybe didn't have the full full design skill set.

[24:56](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/?t=1496) And what happened was this function emerged called product management. I'm not arguing against. We have product managers. It's very important. But in industrial design, there's no product managers. For the most part, they're industrial designers. In architecture, the architect is the product manager. And so I think what ended up happening in web design, designers are very, very narrow. There was a void. Product managers filled that void.

[25:17](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/?t=1517) I'm not arguing against that model. But I think if designers sit out, what you're going to see is engineers and product managers designing for them. And I think the counterpoint is designers can be engineers and product people for intents and purposes. Said differently, if I were starting Airbnb today, I'd be Vibe Coding and Claude Code. Yeah. And I'm trying to do it now. I'm I'm doing it for fun. I'm not really going to be doing anything productive Airbnb. But if I was 26, I would have thought of myself as a technical person. I think all designers should think of themselves as product people and as, you know, front end engineers if if anything.

[25:51](https://realalpha.app/v/TyNufBceyZo/?t=1551) And so I think this is a boon. I don't think that the future of of the Internet has to be all text based. I think it can be very visual. I think that photo and video generation models allow you to design incredibly rich interfaces. And this is I think the best time in the world for designers and creative people to get involved. I think they're just a little bit afraid. And I whatever we can do to enlist them to just get their hands dirty, many designers are. I just think more should get involved and not be in beginning getting out of typical wireframes. Just start coding.