Uber is reportedly planning to cut about 3,300 jobs globally, approximately 10% of its total workforce, to reduce management layers and duplicate functions, and to reallocate resources to ride-hailing, delivery, and autonomous taxi services. At this stage, the plan has not yet been formally confirmed by Uber.

Public reports indicate that Uber has approximately 34,000 employees worldwide. Based on the 10% figure, the layoffs would amount to about 3,300 to 3,400 people; the actual number affected will depend on whether outsourced, contract workers, regional teams, restructured positions, and natural attrition are included. Previous reports of layoffs were more focused on human resources and office space departments, accounting for less than 1% of the total workforce.

The focus of this rumor is not merely cost-cutting, but organizational restructuring: reducing management layers, lowering coordination and reporting costs across teams, allowing product, engineering, operations, and business teams to more directly serve the ride-hailing, Uber Eats, and autonomous mobility strategies. If the layoffs are implemented, backend functions not directly facing drivers, passengers, merchants, delivery personnel, and autonomous partners will face higher adjustment risks.

In recent years, Uber has significantly increased its internal use of AI. The company claims that AI agents account for over 70% of engineering code change submissions, with the engineering team running over 30,000 agent tasks daily; by routing simple tasks to low-cost models, limiting single-session usage, and displaying costs in real-time, the cost per 1,000 AI requests has been reduced by about 34% from the peak in April, and the cost per session has decreased by about 52% since June.

Customer service is the most direct area for cost reduction through AI. Last month, Uber cut about 10% of its customer service staff, with management stating that AI can reduce customer service costs while improving interaction quality; however, the company previously stated that layoffs in human resources and office space teams were not directly related to AI deployment, so the proposed 3,300-person plan cannot be entirely explained as a direct replacement by AI.

Autonomous driving remains the main long-term direction for Uber's resource reallocation. The company collaborates with autonomous driving companies like Waymo, WeRide, Avride, and May Mobility to exchange platform access, order distribution, mapping, payment, and user networks for Robotaxi capacity access in certain cities. Uber does not need to manufacture autonomous vehicles itself but must invest in collaboration integration, fleet operations, commercial incentives, regulatory coordination, and passenger service systems.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated that the platform has completed hundreds of thousands of autonomous ride orders weekly, but this still accounts for less than 0.5% of the total approximately 300 million trips during the same period. Autonomous driving currently remains a low-volume business and cannot replace Uber's core ride-hailing and delivery services in the short term; its commercial value mainly comes from the potential to reduce driver costs, improve capacity utilization, and strengthen the mobility entry options in the future.

From a market mechanism perspective, the labor supply for affected positions will flow to other technology, logistics, AI, and service companies; Uber is attempting to convert wages, management, and backend costs into resources for product development, AI automation, delivery expansion, and autonomous driving partnerships. Beneficiaries include Robotaxi partners that can take on Uber's order flow, low-cost AI model suppliers, and operational teams that improve unit order efficiency; middle management, redundant support positions, and service outsourcing companies that rely on human customer service cost structures will face pressure. For investors, the key is not the number of layoffs, but whether cost reductions translate into growth in ride-hailing and delivery, improved profit margins, and revenue from Robotaxi commercialization.

Source: Public Information