Uber cuts 10% of customer support jobs, citing AI rollout

On 22 July 2026, Uber announced that it had cut 10% of jobs in its customer support division. The move is part of a broader effort to simplify the company's structure and shift to artificial intelligence.

What exactly Uber did

Uber laid off 10% of its customer support staff and kept the rest of the team working alongside automated tools. The company framed this not as a one-off cost cut but as a structural change: an attempt to "streamline the ranks" and push AI deeper into serving riders and drivers.

• Date of the announcement: 22 July 2026
• Scale: 10% of customer support jobs
• The cut affects the customer service division specifically, not the whole company
• Official reason: simplifying the structure and rolling out artificial intelligence
• Source: Bloomberg Tech report

Why cut support specifically?

Uber cut customer support first because its tasks are the easiest to hand to AI: routine requests such as trip status, refunds, and payment disputes are well suited to chatbots and LLM agents. The company expects automated systems to take over part of the work that humans used to do.

"Part of efforts to simplify the structure and introduce artificial intelligence,"

Uber said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg.

According to Bloomberg, the cut covers exactly 10% of roles within customer service operations: a significant but not total share of the team.

What Uber did not disclose

Uber gave neither the absolute number of laid-off employees nor any detail on which AI systems will replace people or for which types of requests. The company stuck to the 10% figure and the phrase "introducing artificial intelligence," and provided no quality metrics for automated support and no timeline for a full transition. That leaves the key question open: can bots handle non-standard complaints, such as accidents, safety disputes, and account blocks, where the cost of an error is high and a template reply does not work?

A trend, not an isolated case

Cutting support under the banner of AI fits a broader wave in 2026: tech companies increasingly attribute layoffs to automation rather than a business downturn. Customer service has ended up on the front line because AI tools already deliver measurable results on routine scenarios there, and by announcing the 10% cut, Uber publicly cements that shift.

For support staff, the nature of the job changes: from "answering requests" to "supervising and fine-tuning the systems that answer in their place." Some roles disappear, while others turn into AI oversight.

What this means

Uber's 22 July 2026 announcement is another sign that AI is moving from experiments into real staffing decisions at large companies. Even without absolute figures, the formula "cut 10% and roll out AI" sets the tone for the whole industry: customer support is becoming one of the first mass functions that platforms openly hand over to automation.