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

Uber has spent its entire annual AI budget in just four months of 2026 and is questioning whether the spending is worthwhile, as the company struggles to see a clear connection between rising token consumption (the computational cost of running AI models like Claude Code) and actual improvements in features delivered to customers. Uber's president says it's difficult to prove that increased AI spending is directly producing more useful features for consumers.