Uber caps usage of AI tools like Claude code to cut costs

Uber Technologies Inc as set usage caps on some artificial intelligence-powered tools used by its staff, a move meant to manage costs after the company blew through its AI budget earlier this year.

The rideshare giant is limiting all employees to $1,500 in monthly token spending per AI coding tool, an Uber spokesperson said in response to a Bloomberg News inquiry.

That means spending on one tool doesn’t have a bearing on the budget for another. The limits, which have been instituted in recent months, only apply to agentic coding software such as Cursor or Anthropic PBC’s Claude Code.

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Every employee has a dashboard where they can track their usage across various tools. The company has also implemented a process by which individuals can seek permission to exceed their normal cap.

“We think this is all a pretty straightforward way to responsibly encourage agentic AI adoption and experimentation at scale across the company,” the spokesperson said.

Shares of Uber hit a session low as they extended declines to trade 2.7% lower.

The limits, which have not been reported, come in response to Uber’s growing embrace of AI tools internally. Chief Technology Officer Praveen Neppalli Naga told the Information in April that the company had already maxed out its full-year AI budget.

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Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said last month that about 10% of the company’s code was submitted and built by AI agents, and that the legal and marketing teams have seen an uptick in usage.

Beyond Uber, other companies in different sectors are toeing a line between seeking a productivity boost from AI tools while trying to rein in associated costs. Uber said last month that it will moderate the overall pace of hiring relative to its plans entering the year, as a result of the benefits from using AI internally.

Still, it remains to be seen whether leaning into AI tools is translating into more new features for Uber’s customers, according to Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macdonald. “It’s very hard to draw a line between one of those stats and ‘OK, now we are actually producing like 25% more useful consumer features,’" he said on the Rapid Response podcast last month.

"Over the coming quarters and years, maybe that will become clearer, but I think today it’s hard even if some of the underlying metrics are trending in a really astronomical direction,” he said on the program.

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