Uber is deliberately slowing its hiring pace to redirect spending toward artificial intelligence, after autonomous coding agents began producing more than 10% of the company’s committed code. Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi disclosed the shift on Uber’s first‑quarter 2026 earnings call, saying AI tools are allowing engineers to work at higher throughput while the company moderates headcount growth.
Roughly 95% of Uber’s roughly 5,000 engineers now use AI coding assistants on a monthly basis, and the company has already exhausted its 2026 budget for Anthropic’s Claude Code, according to recent reports. Chief Financial Officer Balaji Krishnamurthy said Uber had underestimated how quickly AI tools would scale, prompting the firm to trade slower hiring for higher AI infrastructure and tooling costs.
Despite the heavier AI spend, Uber delivered strong first‑quarter results that bolstered investor confidence. The company reported $53.7 billion in gross bookings, up 25% year over year, and $13.2 billion in revenue, with non‑GAAP earnings per share rising 44% to $0.72. Shares climbed about 10% in extended trading, reflecting optimism that productivity gains from AI will offset the reduced hiring pace.
Khosrowshahi framed the move as a broader industry signal: instead of adding engineers, firms may increasingly add AI agents and GPUs. Uber’s experience is emerging as a visible case study of how large‑scale engineering teams are using coding agents to reshape both workflow and long‑term hiring strategy.
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