Uber Executives Reveal Extremely Low Consumer Adoption of AI Agents
Recent earnings reports from Uber and DoorDash reveal that consumer adoption of AI agents for booking rides and ordering food remains negligibly low. Specifically, Uber reported only 4 ride-hailing orders and 500 food delivery orders processed via AI agents during its peak week in October out of roughly 320 million total transactions. These metrics offer a reality check against the current widespread hype surrounding the 'Agentic Web' and autonomous AI tools. They demonstrate that despite massive industry interest and numerous startup launches, everyday consumers are not yet relying on AI agents for standard commerce tasks. Uber executives noted that using AI agents does not necessarily save time, as a typical user can book a ride in about 50 seconds and reorder food in 90 seconds natively in the app. Nonetheless, leadership remains optimistic about AI assistants as an eventual new acquisition channel for the platform.
## BACKGROUND
An AI agent is an autonomous software program powered by large language models that can make decisions, use tools, and execute multi-step tasks independently on behalf of users. The concept of the 'Agentic Web' represents an emerging internet paradigm where these autonomous agents act as primary users to browse, interact, and complete transactions.