The reductions hit the community operations team and come weeks after a June workforce cut, as Uber says it is simplifying operations, pushing office attendance and embracing AI.
Uber cut 10% of its customer service jobs on Wednesday, the first time the company has directly linked layoffs to artificial intelligence efficiency gains. The reductions affected its community operations team, while remote workers in that group were told to move to a hub office under the company’s return-to-office mandate. Megha Yethatika, Uber’s vice president of global community operations, told staff the unit had become “too complex and siloed” and said the team had made progress with AI but needed a cleaner operating base to build on. “We cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes,” Yethatika said in a memo reported by Bloomberg. An Uber spokesperson said the company wants “to simplify operations, strengthen in-person collaboration, and continue to embrace AI.” The move follows another round of cuts in June, when Uber reduced 23% of its people division, or under 1% of its 34,000 global employees, after a new president took charge. Uber also said in May it would slow hiring because of internal AI use, though it still has more than 500 open roles, including engineers for its robotaxi partnerships. The decision reflects a wider labor-market trend as companies increasingly cite AI as a reason for workforce reductions. Challenger, Gray and Christmas (outplacement firm) said AI was mentioned in 101,743 U.S. job cut announcements through June, about 23% of the total, and has led all stated layoff reasons for four straight months. Even so, AI’s long-term effect on employment remains debated.