Former Uber employees have discussed the increasing use of artificial intelligence in daily operations following a wave of layoffs that eliminated roughly 3,300 jobs, according to reports by Business Insider.
AI Integration and Workplace Impact at Uber
According to former staff members, some employees relied heavily on AI to handle substantial portions of their workloads. One former employee in Uber’s advertising business stated that managers frequently urged teams to use tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to prepare for client meetings. “We were asked to use AI all the time,” the former employee told Business Insider. “It was part of our day-to-day work.” Another worker mentioned using an AI tool that drastically cut down the time required to complete specific tasks, describing the technology as “the dynamite under the bridge for a lot of us.”
Internal Chatbots and Customer Support Automation
Uber has integrated internal AI systems across various departments, including Genie, an internal chatbot deployed in Slack channels to answer employee questions with citations from company documentation. According to former employees who spoke with Business Insider, Genie often replaced the human guidance previously provided by managers or colleagues. In customer service roles, agents reported using Glean—a tool trained on internal company documents—to answer help requests from drivers and passengers when standard knowledge bases failed. While some workers found these tools helpful for finding information quickly, other teams received strict warnings. Kori X, a former evaluation specialist on Uber’s GenAI team, told Business Insider that management cautioned employees against letting AI do their work entirely, noting that leadership questioned the value of human staffing if ChatGPT handled all tasks.
Executive Justifications for Layoffs
Despite the growing reliance on automation, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi did not cite artificial intelligence as a motivating factor in the memo announcing the workforce reductions. Instead, Khosrowshahi explained that the layoffs were designed to cut management layers and eliminate micro-teams where managers oversaw only one or two direct reports. During a presentation at an industry conference, Khosrowshahi reiterated that the company aimed to increase the ratio of “doers versus managers.” Meanwhile, internal sources noted that Uber took a measured approach compared to other tech firms, offering office hours and clarifying AI capabilities. However, financial realities also played a role; some employees reported that Uber cut or reduced service credits for AI tools like Claude in the first half of the year after executives determined that productivity gains did not match the steep spending costs.
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