Uber president says AI spending is getting 'harder to justify'

Uber's president Andrew Macdonald stated that the company is struggling to justify its AI spending, having exhausted its annual AI budget just four months into 2026, because there is no clear connection between rising AI token consumption and actual productivity gains or useful consumer features. Despite increasing R&D spending and trading human employees for AI investments, Macdonald acknowledged it's difficult to prove that higher AI costs are translating into meaningful improvements for users.