Uber customer support department cuts another 10%, admits the reason for layoffs is to embrace AI

Uber cut headcount in its global community operations division (including customer service) this Wednesday, and required remote employees to return to designated offices. This is the company’s second round of layoffs in less than two months as it simplifies its organization.
(Backgrounder: Are tech firms finally afraid to shift blame to AI? Robinhood cuts 10%; an internal memo reveals Silicon Valley’s “downsizing new excuse”)
(Additional context: AI layoffs are here! 55% of companies that cut jobs apologize, Ford rehired 350 veteran engineers after three years)

Companies have always preferred vague reasons for layoffs—restructuring, streamlining, focusing on core business—sounding respectable while leaving people unable to pin down the real cause. But this time Uber didn’t take a detour and said it plainly: it eliminated 10% of roles in the customer service department, with the stated reason being to “embrace AI artificial intelligence.”

This is Uber’s second layoff in two months, and the first time the company has publicly linked layoffs to AI efficiency.

The real meaning behind “our organization is too complex”

Uber announced on Wednesday that it would cut headcount in its global community operations team, a unit responsible for customer service. In an email, a Uber spokesperson said the company is “simplifying operations, strengthening in-person collaboration, and continuing to embrace AI.” Employees who had been working remotely were also required, under the company’s return-to-office policy, to relocate to designated hub offices to work.

Megha Yethatika, vice president of global community operations at Uber, was even more direct in an internal memo to the team: “Our organization has become too complex, too siloed.” She acknowledged that the department has made “some progress” in onboarding AI, but to truly unlock that potential, “we need an efficient organizational structure to support AI—we can’t scale frontier technology on fragmented processes.” In other words, in her view, the problem with the customer service team is not that the AI isn’t good enough; it’s that people and processes are too messy to deliver the results AI is supposed to produce.

Last time didn’t mention AI—this time points entirely to AI

This is already the second time Uber has laid off workers in under two months to simplify team structures. In June, after a new president took over, Uber cut 23% of the so-called “human resources department” headcount—accounting for less than 1% of its 34,000 employees worldwide. At the time, the company did not attribute that round of layoffs to AI.

This time is different. This is Uber’s first time publicly linking layoffs directly to “improving AI efficiency.” Bloomberg noted that in recent months, companies ranging from financial services firm Block to cloud provider Oracle have used AI as a reason for layoffs. Uber’s move this time is essentially officially joining that list.