Uber revealed in its third-quarter earnings call that hardly anyone is using personal AI agents to book rides or orders through its platform. During the busiest week in late October, only four Uber rides and about 500 Uber Eats orders were placed using AI agents. This contrasts sharply with the approximately 320 million total trips and deliveries Uber handled that week, indicating that AI agent adoption for these functions remains negligible so far.

Despite the excitement in the tech world over autonomous AI agents capable of managing various tasks for consumers, Uber's CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged that these tools have seen very limited traction in their ecosystem. They suggested that the speed and ease of booking rides or reordering food manually through Uber's app—typically less than two minutes—may reduce the incentive for users to rely on AI intermediaries at this time.

The broader market shows a similar pattern, with companies like DoorDash reporting only a few hundred AI agent orders, far from mainstream use. Meanwhile, a range of players including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, SpaceXAI, and startups like Instinct and Meta’s Muse are actively developing or deploying AI assistant technologies, signaling that the ecosystem for agentic AI is still emerging and has growth potential despite current low engagement.

Uber remains optimistic about AI agents, viewing them as a future channel for engaging users and increasing demand on their platform. Khosrowshahi noted that multiple AI assistant systems are in talks with Uber, and he expects the number of such AI systems in the market to grow beyond the existing eight, indicating that personal AI assistance is anticipated to become a more significant part of the user experience over time.