Uber finds AI investments increasingly difficult to justify
According to its statements, Uber already used up its AI budget for 2026. However, it is unclear whether this has resulted in a significant added benefit.
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Uber uses AI intensively, but to what extent this is really worthwhile is apparently not entirely clear to the company itself. In April, Uber's Chief Technology Officer Praveen Neppalli Naga explained in an interview with The Information that the company's annual token budget had already been used up. However, a clear increase in useful functions for consumers has not yet emerged, Uber President Andrew Macdonald said on the Rapid Response podcast.
“That link is not there yet, right? I think maybe implicitly there is more that is getting shipped, but it’s very hard to draw a line between one of those stats and, ‘Okay, now we’re actually producing 25 percent more useful consumer features,’” said Macdonald on the podcast. The fact that the benefits of AI investments in companies are difficult to measure reliably is currently a problem for many companies. Macdonald: “I think over the coming quarters and years, maybe that will become clearer, but I think today it’s hard, even if some of the underlying metrics are trending in a really astronomical direction.”
Recently, AI usage has been greatly expanded
Like much of the tech industry, Uber has also implemented more and more AI in the last year. The company had employees from all departments integrate it into their workflows. “We are observing increasing use of these tools, whether in our legal department, marketing team, or by developers,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in an investor call. Currently, about 10 percent of the company's code is generated by autonomous agents. The company compensates for these AI costs by hiring fewer employees, Khosrowshahi said.
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However, whether this is a good deal is unclear, Andrew Macdonald cautioned. “We're going to have to start talking about token consumption and the associated cost versus headcount,” said Macdonald. “So if you’re not actually able to draw a direct line to how much useful features and functionality you’re shipping to your users, that trade becomes harder to justify.”
A number of other company leaders have revised their initially optimistic views on AI. An overview of token budgets and vibe coding costs explains how the costs for AI-powered code development can be roughly calculated.
(dahe)
