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

Uber 总裁称人工智能支出正变得“越来越难以证明其合理性”

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. 据报道，Uber 在 2026 年仅过去四个月就耗尽了年度人工智能预算，目前该公司正在质疑其投资是否真的获得了有意义的回报。在接受《Rapid Response》采访时，Uber 总裁兼首席运营官安德鲁·麦克唐纳（Andrew Macdonald）表示，公司并未发现 Claude Code 的 Token 消耗量增加与向消费者交付更多实用功能之间存在必然联系。

”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 features,’” said Macdonald. “I think 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.” “这种联系目前还不存在，对吧？我认为可能在隐性层面上有更多的产品被交付，但很难将这些统计数据与‘好吧，我们现在确实多生产了 25% 的实用消费者功能’直接挂钩，”麦克唐纳说道。“我认为在未来的几个季度和几年里，这种情况可能会变得更加清晰，但就目前而言，即使一些底层指标正呈现出天文数字般的增长趋势，这种关联依然难以界定。”

Uber spent $3.4 billion on research and development efforts in 2025, 9 percent more than it had spent the previous year. Earlier this month, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company was making up for its increasing AI investments by hiring fewer human employees. Uber 在 2025 年的研发投入为 34 亿美元，比前一年增长了 9%。本月早些时候，Uber 首席执行官达拉·科斯罗萨西（Dara Khosrowshahi）表示，公司正通过减少招聘员工来抵消不断增加的人工智能投资成本。

“We’re going to have to start talking about token consumption and the associated cost versus headcount,” said Macdonald. “So if you’re not actually able to draw a direct line to how much useful features and functionality you’re shipping to your users, that trade becomes harder to justify.” “我们必须开始讨论 Token 消耗及其相关成本与员工人数之间的关系，”麦克唐纳说。“因此，如果你无法直接衡量你向用户交付了多少有用的功能，那么这种权衡就变得越来越难以证明其合理性。”