Uber has set usage caps on artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools like Claude, Cursor used by its employees. According to a Bloomberg report, the ride-hailing firm exceeded its AI budget earlier this year and the latest move is aimed to manage the rising costs. “We think this is all a pretty straightforward way to responsibly encourage agentic AI adoption and experimentation at scale across the company,” an Uber spokesperson said as quoted in the report.
Uber caps monthly AI token limit to $1,500
As reported by Bloomberg, Uber is limiting all employees to $1,500 in monthly token spending per AI coding tool. This would mean that money spent on one tool does not affect the budget for another tool. Further, the limits apply only to the agentic coding software such as Cursor or Anthropic PBC’s Claude Code.Each Uber employee has a dashboard to track their usage of AI tools. In case the cap exceeds, individuals can seek permission from the company.
Uber exceeds its AI budget
Earlier this year in April, Uber Chief Technology Officer Praveen Neppalli Naga told the Information that the company had already maxed out its full-year AI budget. The company’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said last month that about 10% of the company’s code was submitted and built by AI agents, and that the legal and marketing teams have seen an uptick in usage.Last month, the company said it will hire fewer people than originally planned as it sees benefits from using AI within the company. However, Uber’s COO, Andrew Macdonald, recently cast doubt on AI’s productivity saying “It’s very hard to draw a line between one of those stats and ‘OK, now we’re actually producing like 25% more useful consumer features”. “Over the coming quarters and years, maybe that will become clearer, but I think today it’s hard even if some of the underlying metrics are trending in a really astronomical direction,” he said on the Rapid Response podcast last month.
Uber not the only firm to cap staff’s AI usage
Notably, Uber is not alone in capping employees’ AI usage to cut costs. Recently, Microsoft asked its staff to stop using Anthropic Claude and switch to the company’s Copilot with finances as one of the possible reasons as reported by The Verge. Similarly, Walmart has also reportedly capped staffers’ use of an in-house AI agent that helps with workplace tasks.
