Uber Questions Rising AI Costs

Uber has sparked fresh debate in the technology industry after its Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macdonald questioned whether rising investments in artificial intelligence are delivering meaningful productivity gains. Speaking on the Rapid Response podcast, Macdonald said increasing usage of AI coding tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Code has not yet translated into a proportional rise in useful consumer features. He explained that although AI-related metrics and token consumption are growing rapidly, it remains difficult to directly connect those figures to measurable business outcomes or significant improvements in products delivered to users.

The remarks come at a time when major technology companies are aggressively encouraging employees to maximise the use of AI tools, a growing trend known as “tokenmaxxing.” Uber executives recently revealed that the company exhausted its annual AI budget within the first four months of 2026, intensifying internal discussions about balancing AI expenses with workforce costs. Experts say companies are now facing pressure to justify soaring AI spending as enterprise AI providers shift toward token-based billing models. While AI tools have lowered the cost and speed of software development, studies suggest they do not always improve the quality or usefulness of the final output. Industry analysts believe this disconnect may lead to more layoffs as firms attempt to offset increasing AI infrastructure costs while searching for ways to convert AI usage into measurable business value.