{"id":18,"date":"2026-05-26T19:46:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18"},"modified":"2026-05-26T19:46:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:46:05","slug":"ai-investment-is-harder-to-justify-as-productivity-returns-lag-uber-coo-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18","title":{"rendered":"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Uber does not see a link between productivity gains and its colossal AI spending commitments, according to the company\u2019s chief operating officer.<\/p>\n

Read more The Feds and Law Enforcement Are Worried AI Backlash Could Turn Into \u2018Anti-Tech Violent Extremism\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Like much of the rest of the tech industry, Uber went all in on AI this past year. Company executives had employees across divisions embed AI into their workflows and reported that they were relying on AI agents for 10% of all code changes.<\/p>\n

While Uber doesn\u2019t outwardly subscribe to this practice, many tech giants have reportedly begun incentivizing more AI use among their employees with internal token use leaderboards. In March, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argued that if you hire a software engineer for $500,000 a year, they should be consuming \u201cat least $250,000 worth of tokens\u201d in that same time frame.<\/p>\n

But tokens cost money, and it\u2019s supposed to come from somewhere. Most executives have found that \u201csomewhere\u201d to be their own employees.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u2018Somebody\u2019s paying the bill\u2019 for AI underperformance<\/h2>\n

Last month, Uber CTO, Praveen Neppalli Naga, told\u00a0The Information that Uber had already exceeded its 2026 AI budget<\/span> within the first four months of the year. Shortly after, at the company\u2019s earnings call earlier this month, executives said that Uber would be upping that AI spending even further and slowing down hiring to help pay for it.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

But now, Uber COO Andrew Macdonald says that those towering financial commitments are not directly correlating with real, tangible productivity gains, and it\u2019s making it tougher to justify the headcount reductions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talk to your senior engineering leaders, and you\u2019re saying, \u2018Okay, how many projects that were on the cutting room floor got moved above the line because of the productivity gains, because 25% of our code commits were via Claude Code last quarter,\u2019 that link is not there yet,\u201d Macdonald told the Rapid Response podcast over the weekend. \u201cIf you\u2019re not actually able to draw a direct line to how much useful features and functionality you\u2019re shipping to your users, that trade becomes harder to justify.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The First GPU Out of China Can\u2019t Compete Against Nvidia\u2026 Yet<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Macdonald\u2019s comments echo long-held worries about the AI boom and its murky productivity returns. Companies across industries are spending staggering amounts of money to adopt AI and have it automate tasks across workflows, hoping for unbelievable returns on productivity and new highs for profit.<\/p>\n

The thinking among executives goes that because AI can work super fast and around the clock, and it doesn\u2019t have the same needs as a human employee does, then surely it must be the wiser economic decision to have agents take over workflows instead.<\/p>\n

But while AI can feel like it\u2019s free for those who are using it, Macdonald said, \u201csomebody\u2019s paying the bill.\u201d The AI industry has promised that the bill and the sacrifices made to pay for it will be worth it, but that scenario hasn\u2019t panned out\u00a0as quickly as promised.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Concern around U.S. economy\u2019s pivot to AI is growing<\/h2>\n

Another way the Uber executive says he\u2019s seen AI\u2019s lack of return is through the rise of commerce AI agents. As agentic AI gains ground, some experts started sounding the death knell for app providers like Uber and DoorDash, whose business models they say will be completely disrupted by agentic AI assistants that will shop on behalf of the average user.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working with pretty much all of the large model companies as they roll out, try to roll out commerce, and there hasn\u2019t really been anything that\u2019s taken off yet,\u201d Macdonald said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t happen, but a year ago at our board meeting, we were worried that by this point, a year later, we\u2019d be totally disaggregated, because all commerce is going to be flowing through the large model codes in the form of chatbots, and that just hasn\u2019t played out yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Uber is only one, though rather major, addition to a growing trend that\u2019s reportedly forming: even though the entire business world seems bullish on AI, its productivity returns are not following suit for everyone. If that trend continues, that has potentially disastrous consequences for the unprecedented AI infrastructure buildout this country is undertaking and the entire U.S. economy that AI spending has been propping up.<\/p>\n

Read more Majority of Americans Support Ban on Surveillance Pricing and Electronic Shelf Labels<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The productivity returns and the financial commitments are not correlating yet, according to Uber COO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"yoast_head":"\nAI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says - Long Haul Moving Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says - Long Haul Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The productivity returns and the financial commitments are not correlating yet, according to Uber COO.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Long Haul Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-26T19:46:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b\"},\"headline\":\"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-26T19:46:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18\"},\"wordCount\":767,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Artificial Intelligence\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18\",\"name\":\"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says - Long Haul Moving Pros\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-26T19:46:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=18#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Long Haul Moving Pros\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says - Long Haul Moving Pros","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says - Long Haul Moving Pros","og_description":"The productivity returns and the financial commitments are not correlating yet, according to Uber COO.","og_url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18","og_site_name":"Long Haul Moving Pros","article_published_time":"2026-05-26T19:46:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b"},"headline":"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says","datePublished":"2026-05-26T19:46:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18"},"wordCount":767,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp","articleSection":["Artificial Intelligence"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18","url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18","name":"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says - Long Haul Moving Pros","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp","datePublished":"2026-05-26T19:46:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6b028412d25f93f361432f96765e186b.webp","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=18#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"AI Investment Is \u2018Harder to Justify\u2019 as Productivity Returns Lag, Uber COO Says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/","name":"Long Haul Moving Pros","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com"],"url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}