Uber cuts 10% of customer service jobs in AI push
What's the story
Uber Technologies has announced a major downsizing in its customer service division, laying off 10% of its customer service workforce. The move is part of a larger effort to simplify operations and "embrace artificial intelligence," the company said. The layoffs were confirmed on Wednesday and mainly affected the community operations team.
Policy change
Remote workers asked to move to hub office
Along with the layoffs, Uber has also asked remote workers in the affected team to move to a hub office. The decision is in line with the company's return-to-office policy.
"Our organization has become too complex and siloed," Megha Yethatika, Uber's VP of global community operations, said in a memo to her division on Wednesday.
Tech transition
We cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes
Yethatika acknowledged that the department has made some progress in using AI but emphasized the need for an effective organization to layer it on.
"We cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes," she said.
This is the first time Uber has cited AI as a reason for job cuts, marking its second round of layoffs in less than two months to simplify team structures.
Workforce changes
Uber had cut 23% of its people division in June
In June, Uber had cut 23% of its so-called people division, affecting less than 1% of its 34,000 global employees.
The company has also said it would slow hiring due to the internal use of AI. However, it is still actively recruiting for over 500 roles on its jobs page.
These include engineering positions to support robotaxi partnerships.