Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says AI is creating 'employees with superpowers,' leading to slower hiring as AI boosts productivity, countering claims that AI lacks ROI.
There is a giant misinformation campaign currently on Reddit regarding AI. I want to dispel this: uber is very bullish on AI. Ubers CEO said that they are slowing hiring, not because AI is expensive without an ROI (as other postings here suggest), but because AI is creating "employees with superpowers". He even stated that the company had underestimated AI in 2025. Yes, they went through all of their tokens faster than thought, but not because AI is a waste, but because it has improved so fast and been even more useful than thought. See [this article](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/uber-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-admits-that-company-is-slowing-hiring-and-the-reason-is-ai-says-if-every-person-at-this-company-can-increase-their-productivity-by-/articleshow/130901246.cms#:~:text=During%20the%20company's%20first%2Dquarter,at%20AI%20as%20an%20accelerator) for full quotes. Just 2 months ago, he went on one of the biggest podcasts in the world, and said that tech CEOs are [not saying publicly the real threat of AI,](https://smarterx.ai/smarterxblog/ceos-publicly-voicing-ai-impact#:~:text=What%20Happened,dries%20up%20fundraising%2C%20he%20says) seeing it as massive disruptor. See the full podcast here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s52O1JH2tnU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s52O1JH2tnU) I also see quotes from the COO being attribute to the CEO, and the COOs quote are largely out of context. Yes he said AI is expensive, and that using traditional KPIs to measure usefulness are difficult. But this in no way means that Ubers position is bearish on AI, and they are quite the opposite. Look, I am not saying the CEO is right, or that I support him. Some of his positions seem toxic IMO. But the amount of disinformation I see in this sub and reddit in general regarding AI is really astounding, where people are trying to pretend like AI is a hype that will go away. This is absolutely not what these CEOs are saying (Including Microsoft, which has a competing product to Claude cli, which for sure is the ultimate reason they are telling employees to stop using Claude) Expect these companies to double down on AI in the coming year.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi states 90% of Uber engineers use AI, with top 30% seeing unprecedented productivity gains, and predicts that within 5 years, the ROI of AI agents and GPUs will surpass that of human engineers.
Uber's CEO and COO express caution about AI spending, noting that increased AI usage does not clearly translate to better customer outcomes, leading to slowed hiring and tighter budget controls.
Uber president Andrew Macdonald says the company is struggling to see a direct return on its massive AI spending, as rising token consumption from tools like Claude Code hasn't translated into more useful consumer features.
Uber COO Andrew Macdonald says the company is finding it harder to justify AI token spending as higher usage hasn't translated into proportional consumer features, highlighting a growing corporate skepticism toward AI investment.
Uber discusses its AI strategy across multiple business segments (rides, Uber Eats, grocery) to enhance customer experiences through personalization, intelligent automation, and empathetic customer support, treating AI as an intelligent co-pilot for workforce augmentation.