Uber Says Third-Party AI Agents Booked Just Four Rides Last Quarter

This is the first time Uber has published figures on how much business AI agents send to its platform. Investors and analysts have increasingly asked whether consumer agents, such as Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots, could take over the customer relationship from apps like Uber and DoorDash. In that scenario a user asks a general-purpose assistant to book a car or order dinner, and the platform is reduced to a back-end supplier.

On the evidence of Uber's numbers, that shift has barely begun. Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the company was open to working with AI developers while expecting customers to keep using its own app.

"We hope that there will be more traction," Khosrowshahi said on the call. "We think our direct services are going to be the most delightful and easy, but we will work with these third parties." He added: "It is just very, very early, and we want to make sure we are not dependent on any one player."

Why The Numbers Are So Small

The Verge noted that today's consumer agents still face plenty of friction when completing real-world transactions such as payments, location details and order confirmation. Platform operators also have little commercial reason to make it easy for an outside assistant to sit between them and their customers. A platform that loses the direct relationship can lose its advertising income, its loyalty programmes and its ability to steer demand.

Uber is building its own AI features meant to keep users inside its app. Earlier this year it introduced a Cart Assistant for Uber Eats that builds a grocery basket from a photo of a recipe or a text prompt.

Why It Matters

For executives in consumer platforms, retail and travel, Uber's disclosure is one of the few hard data points on how much agentic commerce is actually happening, as opposed to how much is being forecast. Four rides out of hundreds of millions of transactions suggests that the volume threat from general-purpose agents is still negligible for established consumer apps.

The figures say less about where things will be in a year or two. AI companies regard ordering and booking as central uses for their agents and as a route to new revenue, and they are likely to keep pushing for deeper integrations. The more pressing question for platforms is on what terms to cooperate: whether to open interfaces to agents, charge for access, or hold out to protect their direct customer relationships. Khosrowshahi's remarks suggest Uber intends to keep its options open with several AI partners while it develops its own assistant features.