UPFRONT | EDITOR’ S MESSAGE

BUSINESS CHIEF MAGAZINE TEAM

MANAGING EDITOR LUCY BUCHHOLZ

SENIOR EDITOR NICK FRANCIS

DEPUTY EDITOR ALEC MCDONNELL

LEAD DESIGNER ANDY WOOLLACOTT

GLOBAL MEDIA DIRECTOR JODIE PARKES-ROWE MARK CAWSTON

PRODUCTION MANAGERS YEVHENIIA SUBBOTINA FREYA REID

SENIOR MARKETING LEAD GRACE MALLER

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ JANE ARNETA

MANAGING DIRECTOR LONDON & EVENTS JAMES CALLEN

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER JAMES WHITE

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER LEWIS VAUGHAN

CEO GLEN WHITE

“ BUILD SOMETHING 100 PEOPLE LOVE, not something 1 million people kind of like.” The words of this month’ s cover star, Brian Chesky, Airbnb’ s co-founder and CEO.

Except a few more than 100 people love the company he built from air mattresses on an apartment floor. Airbnb has checked in 2.5 billion guests and counting, emerging from COVID – a crisis that choked much of the travel sector beyond resuscitation – stronger than it went in.

What struck me putting this issue together is how differently two companies respond to pressure. Chesky has always treated Airbnb as a community, rather than a commodity. Oracle, by contrast, recently admitted that AI is to blame for cutting its workforce.

In this issue, we ask what that confession means for the tech sector, and why, despite US $ 725bn poured into AI, 95 % of corporate rollouts still don’ t move the P & L.

NICK FRANCIS

SENIOR EDITOR

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