Uber says only four rides were booked by AI agents
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Uber said on its third-quarter earnings call that only four rides were booked by AI agents during its busiest week in October, the week of Halloween. Uber Eats recorded 500 orders placed by AI agents during the same period, while the company handled around 320 million combined rides and orders. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called adoption “very, very early and very limited.”
Khosrowshahi said booking a ride in Uber’s app takes an average of 50 seconds, while reordering a favorite meal takes 90 seconds, which may reduce the time savings offered by agents. DoorDash also said on its earnings call that it had received only a few hundred orders from AI agents. Still, Khosrowshahi said he expects the number of major AI assistants on the market to grow from around eight to more than 10, and that companies in the sector are talking with Uber.
Why it matters · editorial interpretation
Uber’s and DoorDash’s figures suggest that AI agents currently have very limited use for ordering rides and meals. Since these tasks already take less than two minutes in Uber’s app, the time savings may not be enough to speed adoption, although the company says it is in talks with AI assistants.
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