Uber President and COO Andrew Macdonald said AI could allow the ride-hailing company to do the work it performs today with fewer people over the next five years, although he stopped short of predicting an overall workforce reduction because Uber expects to be pursuing new initiatives by then. He said roles such as customer support, sales, content production and analytics are especially suited to AI augmentation and, eventually, partial replacement. Macdonald added that Uber is seeing return on investment from AI in areas including faster financial forecasting and marketing quality assurance, but said it is hard to measure those gains in a way that translates neatly into head count reductions. Uber's total employee base has risen 54.4% over the past five years to about 36,600, and the company said in July it was cutting about 10% of its community operations team while also citing a push to embrace AI. He also said self-driving technology is improving and could pressure some of Uber's most profitable markets, but argued Uber's app and its 200 million monthly active users give the company a strong position as autonomous vehicles and AI assistants reshape ride-hailing.