Business · 2026-11-04

Uber fulfilled only 4 rides from AI agents last quarter

Despite fears that AI agents could take customers away from apps like Uber, third-party agents arranged only four rides and about 500 food deliveries in the third quarter of 2026.

✨ The numbers speak for themselves

Uber executives said on an earnings call that third-party AI agents arranged only four rides in the third quarter of 2026. Uber Eats deliveries were a bit higher: the company recorded "around 500" orders during the week of Halloween.

For comparison, the company handled 320 million rides and deliveries in total over the same period. So the share handled by agents is still tiny. This is the first time Uber has publicly disclosed how many such orders it has seen.

📌 Why companies are worried and why

Experts have recently warned about disintermediation. The idea is that a person could ask an AI agent to order food or book a ride instead of opening the app. In that case, the platform loses direct contact with the customer. Meta Muse and OpenAI Dots were named among such agents.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company is willing to work with third-party AI companies. At the same time, he said customers will likely keep preferring Uber's own app, and that Uber does not want to depend on any single player.

🔹 Why AI agents have not replaced apps yet

Agents still have many friction points and are far from everyday use. Platforms such as Uber or DoorDash have little reason to let outside assistants take over their customers. But according to the article, AI companies see ordering food and rides as one of their main use cases, so the pressure on platforms will continue.

🔸 What Uber is doing itself

To keep customers in its own app, Uber is building its own AI tools. This year it launched Cart Assistant for Uber Eats, a helper that builds a grocery list from a photo of a recipe or a text prompt.

Sources: 🔗 The Verge — AI