Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc has announced the elimination of 10% of jobs within its customer service operations as part of an artificial intelligence efficiency initiative. According to reports from Bloomberg News, these job cuts were announced within the community operations team on Wednesday, with the company citing the need to simplify operations and strengthen in-person collaboration while continuing to embrace AI technology. As reported by The Business Times, this marks the first time Uber has tied layoffs to AI efficiency pushes, representing a significant escalation in the company's AI transformation strategy. The company announced the cuts on July 22, as part of a broader effort to simplify its ranks and embrace artificial intelligence.
As reported by Bloomberg News, Uber's vice president of global community operations, Megha Yethatika, stated in a memo that the organization has become too complex and siloed. She emphasized that while the department has made some progress in using AI, the company cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes. According to The Business Times, Yethatika explained that "to unlock this potential, we need an effective organisation to layer AI on. We cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes." The company is working to simplify ranks and create an effective organization structure to layer AI capabilities effectively.
According to the Bloomberg News report, employees working remotely for the community operations team were asked to relocate to a hub office as part of Uber's return-to-office mandate. This requirement was communicated alongside the job cuts announcement, indicating the company's broader strategy to consolidate operations and improve collaboration through physical presence. As reported by The Business Times, the spokesperson confirmed that employees who had been working remotely were also asked to relocate to a hub office, consistent with the company's return-to-office mandate.
As reported by Bloomberg News, Uber joins major firms such as Block Inc and Oracle Corp. in citing AI as a reason for recent job cuts. This marks the second round of reductions in less than two months to simplify team structures, following the company's 23% cut of its people division in June, which represented less than 1% of its 34,000 global employees. The company has not provided specific data on the size of its customer service operation. In May, Uber had announced it would slow hiring due to internal AI use, but continues recruiting for more than 500 roles on its jobs page, including engineers to support robotaxi partnerships. According to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, AI was cited in 101,743 US job cut announcements through June, roughly 23% of the total, with AI leading all stated reasons for layoffs for four straight months.
Despite the current layoffs, Uber continues recruiting for more than 500 roles on its jobs page, as reported by Bloomberg News. The company is still recruiting engineers to support robotaxi partnerships and other AI-related initiatives, indicating that while some positions are being eliminated, the company remains committed to expanding its AI capabilities and workforce in strategic areas. As reported by The Business Times, the company continues to recruit for engineers to support robotaxi partnerships, showing its ongoing commitment to AI-focused initiatives despite the current workforce reduction.
