DiDi reports an “insignificant” number of rides requested by AI agents
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Stephen Zhu, DiDi’s senior vice president, told Tecnoblog that the company recorded an “insignificant” number of rides requested by external artificial intelligence agents, such as those in ChatGPT or Claude. He questioned what additional value those agents provide, since customers are accustomed to using DiDi’s app — 99 in Brazil. The previous week, Uber had said that only four rides had been requested in this way.
DiDi has its own travel assistant, XiaoDi, which accepts voice or text commands and selects from 90 different service options. According to Zhu, it already handles requests such as a car that can accommodate a dog, but the company does not classify those rides as requests made by external AI agents. DiDi operates in 15 countries and says it has more than 749 million annual active users worldwide.
Why it matters · editorial interpretation
The figures reported by DiDi and Uber may indicate that external agents have not yet added enough value compared with ride-hailing apps already embedded in customers’ routines. The distinction between requests handled by XiaoDi and those made by external agents also suggests that adoption depends on how each company defines and integrates these uses.
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