The ride-hailing giant announced the cuts on 22 July 2026, affecting staff in its community operations team, the division that handles customer support for riders and drivers.
In an internal memo, Megha Yethatika, Uber's Vice President of Global Community Operations, said the organisation had become "too complex and siloed." She noted that while the team had already made progress adopting AI, a simpler structure was needed to fully benefit from the technology, and that fragmented processes would make it difficult to scale advanced AI capabilities.
An Uber spokesperson confirmed the changes are intended to streamline operations, encourage more in-person collaboration, and further integrate AI into the business. Remote employees in the affected team have also been directed to relocate to hub offices, in line with the company's existing return-to-office mandate.
Uber has not disclosed the total size of its customer service operations, making it difficult to calculate an exact headcount. The company said it continues to recruit for more than 500 positions, including engineering roles supporting its robotaxi partnerships.
The July cuts are the company's second round of workforce reductions in less than two months. In June, Uber trimmed 23% of its People division which covers HR, recruitment, workplace facilities, and culture though that reduction accounted for less than 1% of its global workforce of 34,000 employees.
Earlier this year, Uber also said it would slow hiring as a result of increased internal use of AI, noting at its May earnings call that 95% of its engineers now use AI coding tools each month and that AI agents autonomously write more than 10% of its code.
For working professionals, the pattern is instructive: Uber's rationale is that organisational complexity blocks AI adoption; signals that companies may increasingly use AI integration as a trigger for structural restructuring, not just a reason to moderate future hiring.
