As the other commenter said, the main limitation with Airpods (and any other commodity/non-specialized Bluetooth headphones/headsets/buds/etc) is that the Bluetooth protocol only allows for high quality audio streaming or microphone/headset mode. In microphone/headset mode, the audio quality is severely limited. Thus, if you want to use Airpods (or any other Bluetooth audio device) for communication, you're stuck with low quality audio streaming.
Some devices that are designed for high quality audio and microphone usage simultaneously get around this limitation by actually exposing two Bluetooth "devices" simultaneously, one used exclusively for the microphone and the other for receiving high-quality audio. (Some gaming headsets use this technique.)
Some devices that are designed for high quality audio and microphone usage simultaneously get around this limitation by actually exposing two Bluetooth "devices" simultaneously, one used exclusively for the microphone and the other for receiving high-quality audio. (Some gaming headsets use this technique.)