Uber chief says AI spending ‘becoming more difficult to justify’

Having exhausted its annual AI budget just four months into 2026, Uber is now wondering whether it is actually generating meaningful returns on its investments. in Interview with Rapid responseAndrew McDonald, Uber’s president and chief operating officer, said the company doesn’t see a connection between higher Claude Code token consumption and more useful features being offered to consumers.

“That link isn’t there yet, right? I implicitly think there might be more features being shipped, but it’s very difficult to draw a line between one of those statistics and say, ‘Okay, now we’re actually producing 25 percent more useful consumer features,'” MacDonald said. “I think over the coming quarters and years, that will probably become clearer, but I think it’s difficult today, even if some of the fundamental metrics are trending in a really astronomical direction.”

Uber will spend $3.4 billion on research and development efforts in 2025, 9 percent more than it spent the previous year. Earlier this month, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company is offsetting its increased investments in artificial intelligence by… Hiring fewer human employees.

“We’re going to have to start talking about token consumption and the associated cost versus headcount,” MacDonald said. “So, if you can’t actually draw a direct line to the amount of useful features and functionality you’re shipping to users, it becomes difficult to justify that trade.”