Uber weighs AI ROI as returns remain murky

Uber says it exhausted its 2026 AI budget and questions whether AI investments are delivering meaningful feature improvements, noting there’s no clear link between rising token usage for Claude Code and more useful consumer features. The company spent about $3.4 billion on R&D in 2025 and has signaled it will offset AI costs by hiring fewer human workers, highlighting the challenge of justifying AI spend without a clear productivity payoff.