AI & Machine Learning

The Verge6 days ago

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Uber president says AI spending is getting ‘harder to justify’

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Uber president Andrew Macdonald says the company is struggling to justify AI spending as it sees no clear link between rising token consumption and useful features for consumers.

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The Big Picture

Uber president and COO Andrew Macdonald stated in an interview that the company is finding it increasingly difficult to justify its AI spending. This comes after Uber reportedly exhausted its annual AI budget just four months into 2026. Macdonald noted that there is no clear connection between the rising token consumption for tools like Claude Code and the delivery of more useful features to consumers. He acknowledged that while more features may be shipping implicitly, it is hard to draw a direct line between AI investment and tangible output. The comments reflect growing scrutiny within the tech industry on the ROI of large AI expenditures.

Why It Matters

Uber's struggle to link AI spending to tangible product improvements signals a growing industry reckoning: as companies pour billions into AI, the pressure to demonstrate clear ROI is mounting. If a data-driven giant like Uber can't justify its AI budget, it may prompt a broader shift toward more measured, outcome-focused AI investments across tech.

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Andrew Macdonald, president of Uber Technologies Inc., at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. The annual tech conference runs from Nov. 10-13. Photographer: Zed Jameson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

After reportedly exhausting its annual AI budget just four months into 2026, Uber is now questioning whether it's actually seeing meaningful returns on its investments. In an interview with Rapid Response, Uber president and chief operating officer Andrew Macdonald said the company isn't seeing a connection between rising token consumption for Claude Code and more useful features being delivered to consumers.

"That link is not there yet, right? I think maybe implicitly there is more that is getting shipped, but it's very hard to draw a line between one of those stats and, 'Okay, now we're actually producing 25 percent more useful consumer f …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Uber president says AI spending is getting ‘harder to justify’ | TechCulture