THE ESSENTIALS IN 30 SECONDS

  • Uber says only four rides were ordered through an AI agent during Halloween week, its busiest week in October.
  • About 500 Uber Eats orders came from AI agents that week, out of roughly 320 million trips and orders across both services.
  • CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called traction very early but expects agents to add demand; DoorDash recently reported only a few hundred agent orders.

AI assistants that act on a user's behalf are among the most promoted ideas in the technology industry, but Uber's latest figures suggest few people are using them to get around. On its third-quarter earnings call on November 4, the company said that only four rides were requested through an AI agent during the week of Halloween, its busiest week in October.

The numbers Uber shared

Chief financial officer Balaji Krishnamurthy said Uber and Uber Eats together handled about 320 million trips and orders that week, TechCrunch and NewsBytes report. Food delivery saw somewhat more agent activity than rides, with roughly 500 Uber Eats orders placed by an AI agent, still a tiny share of the total.

Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi described the uptake as very early and limited, and said the company hopes it will grow. He also pointed to how quick the Uber app already is: according to TechCrunch, he said a ride takes about 50 seconds to book on average and reordering a favourite meal takes around 90 seconds, which leaves little time for an agent to save. BigGo Finance's account of the call adds that he wants Uber to avoid becoming dependent on third-party platforms, citing his earlier experience in the travel business.

Why Uber still courts AI assistants

Despite the low numbers, Khosrowshahi presented agents as an additional channel to reach Uber and said he expects them to be a net positive for demand. He estimated that there are about eight major AI assistants today and that the number will rise above ten, adding that every AI company is in talks with Uber. The reports did not name which assistants currently connect to the service.

A wider pattern

Uber is not alone. TechCrunch notes that DoorDash said on its own earnings call the previous week that it had received only a few hundred orders from AI agents, with most customers still ordering in its app. At the same time, investment and attention keep flowing toward personal agents: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI all offer them, the startup Instinct recently raised money at a $10 billion valuation, and Meta says its Muse app passed 10 million users after reaching the top of Apple's US App Store last month.

Uber did not say how it identifies an agent-placed order or how the numbers have changed over time, so the trend behind the single week it disclosed is unclear.