This guy is among the people in the world who are not 100 percent cool about artificial intelligence, or AI.
Well, AI has helped make the lives of individuals easier. For employees, why would they spend hours drafting an article, or making an Excel report when AI can do it? For content creators, why would they waste time creating sub-part graphic designs when AI can provide what they are looking for? For travel agencies and tour operators, why would they stress themselves out thinking of the best itineraries for their clients when they can consult AI?
In a recent story shared by Fortune, it is saying that Uber burned through its entire AI budget in 2026 in merely four months, and now, it’s COO, Andrew Macdonald, is questioning whether they did right.
Uber’s 2026 AI budget is huge, but the exact amount allocated has never been publicly disclosed, as of this time of writing. However, experts are saying that the world’s number one ridesharing company burned through it entirely in only four months “due to surging adoption of agentic AI coding tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code and Cursor.”
Now, Macdonald is questioning whether they made the right move.
The Fortune report stated that Uber’s business model is one of the most AI-nurtured in Silicon Valley. This technology decides the prices of rides, optimizes routes, and more other predictive features.
However, even with these advanced features, Uber COO Andrew is sounding the alarm on this type and scope of spending.
Andrew Macdonald is the president and COO of Uber, leading its business initiatives across Delivery and Mobility, including cross-platform efforts, such as advertising, customer support, and the autonomous cars strategy of the team.
Previously, Macdonald was leading the company’s mobility business that is spanning in over 70 countries across the globe, including ridesharing, taxis, micromobility, rentals, transit, high-capacity cars, and so much more.
It was in 2012 when he joined Uber as its first-ever general manager for its Toronto operations. Since coming in, he has helped grow Uber into the biggest platform for mobility in the world.
Currently, he is sitting on the directorial board of Maple Leaf Foods, the world’s first significant carbon-neutral food company, as well as on the board of Lime, which delivers affordable and shared micromobility to cities around the world. He is also part of Careem, which is building the everything app for the greater Middle East.
Before working for Uber, he was a determined entrepreneur and management consultant with Bain & Company. He has an undergraduate business degree at the Ivey Business School at Western University.
What did he exactly say? In this recent interview on the Rapid Response podcast, Macdonald stated it is difficult to draw a connection between Uber’s rising use of Claude Code and innovations meant to serve its customers.
“That link is not there yet,” he stated. “Maybe implicitly there’s more that is getting shipped, but it’s very hard to draw a line between one of those stats and ‘Okay now we’re actually producing like 25 percent more useful consumer features.’”
This controversial take is getting netizens participating, raising their ires, and their eyebrows, too. Over on Reddit, these statements of Macdonald were commented upon, with netizens saying things like, “Sounds like they will be doing layoffs soon so they can allocate more to the AI budget,” “I am gonna watch with popcorn, cause that’ll buy them a year at best. Can’t infinitely lay off people. The bill comes due…. Always!,” and “They miscalculated their expenses, and then realized that AI is too expensive,” among several other mind-blowing comments.
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