Uber says AI agents booked just four rides, with about 500 Uber Eats orders in its peak week

What Uber disclosed on its earnings call

Uber told analysts on 4 November 2026 that very little of its business currently flows through personal AI agents. Only four rides were ordered that way, according to the company's third-quarter call.

The two publishers frame the period for that ride figure differently. The Verge says the four rides were arranged during the third quarter of 2026. TechCrunch says they came in Uber's busiest week of October, the week of Halloween.

Uber Eats saw more agent activity, though the volume stayed small. Both outlets report about 500 Uber Eats orders placed by agents in Halloween week. TechCrunch attributes the figure to Chief Financial Officer Balaji Krishnamurthy, who said the company handled around 320 million trips and orders across Uber and Uber Eats in that week. The Verge describes the same total as Uber rides and Uber Eats deliveries.

According to The Verge, this is the first time Uber has published figures on rides or deliveries arranged by third-party AI agents.

Management view: early days, but open to agents

Khosrowshahi described the traction as very early and very limited, and said Uber hopes it grows. TechCrunch reports he sees agents as another way to reach the platform and expects them to add to demand across the ecosystem.

The Verge reports that executives said they are willing to work with outside AI companies to make Uber easier for agents to use. They also said they believe their own app will remain the easiest and most pleasant way for consumers to order. Khosrowshahi added that Uber does not want to depend on any single player and considers itself well placed.

TechCrunch adds that Khosrowshahi noted the average ride booking in the Uber app takes 50 seconds and re-ordering a favourite meal takes 90 seconds, which suggests an agent may not save users much time. He also said there are around eight major AI assistants today and he expects more than 10 eventually, and that every AI system company is talking to Uber.

Context: the agent wave and platform risk

TechCrunch places the numbers against heavy interest in agents that act on a user's behalf. It mentions the startup Instinct, which raised its latest round at a $10 billion valuation, and Meta's Muse, which reached the top of Apple's U.S. App Store last month and passed 10 million users by Meta's own count. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI (Grok) also offer agents, according to the outlet.

The Verge notes that some experts expect agents to disintermediate platforms such as Uber and DoorDash, meaning customers would use an agent instead of opening the app. The outlet judges that risk to be small for now, citing friction in current agents and the weak incentive for platforms to let them take over the customer relationship. It also says Uber is building its own AI tools to keep users in its app, including a Cart Assistant for Uber Eats launched earlier this year that builds a grocery list from a recipe photo or a text prompt.

TechCrunch says DoorDash reported on its earnings call the previous week that it had received only a few hundred orders from AI agents, with most customers still using the DoorDash app.