Companies have often described artificial intelligence as a tool that will help employees work faster rather than replace them.
But a growing number of major employers are now directly linking workforce reductions to the technology.
Meta recently eliminated thousands of positions as it redirects spending and resources toward artificial-intelligence infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Block recently cut roughly 4,000 jobs after CEO Jack Dorsey posted on X (the former Twitter) saying that AI had fundamentally changed how the company operates.
Now, Uber is eliminating customer service jobs as it restructures the organization to reportedly rely more on artificial intelligence.
Uber Technologies will permanently cut 41 positions at its San Francisco campuses and among its remote California workforce on Sept. 21, according to a recent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice reviewed by TheStreet.
The latest cuts include service-team analysts, Community Operations management, Centers of Excellence employees, and program-management positions, indicating that the layoffs affect Uber’s customer-service organization.
The filing also says approximately nine affected employees may be offered the opportunity to remain with Uber if they relocate.
The notice does not identify the destination offices or say whether Uber will cover their moving expenses.
Uber did not immediately respond to TheStreet’s request for comment.
Uber cuts service and Community Operations jobs
Most of the California layoffs will affect employees tied to Uber’s main campus at 1655 Third Street in San Francisco.
The company is eliminating 26 positions connected to that location, one position at its nearby 1725 Third Street office, and 14 remote California positions.
The largest affected group consists of 13 Service Team Analyst III employees.
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Other affected jobs include nine Centers of Excellence specialists, two Centers of Excellence team leads, eight program managers, and several program specialist positions.
Uber’s Community Operations organization provides support to riders, drivers, couriers, restaurants, and other merchants using its platforms.
On July 22, Bloomberg first reported that Uber was cutting roughly 10% of its Community Operations organization as it consolidated teams, eliminated management positions, and increased its use of artificial intelligence.
Uber did not confirm the exact number of employees to be laid off.
The WARN notice also does not state that AI caused the layoffs, describing it only as a permanent reduction in force.
However, the filing is dated July 22, the same day Uber informed employees about the broader Community Operations restructuring reported by Bloomberg.
Megha Yethadka, Uber’s vice president of global Community Operations, told employees that the company needed to simplify fragmented processes before it could fully scale its AI technology, Bloomberg reported.
“We cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes,” Yethadka wrote in the employee memo, Bloomberg reported.
Uber also told remote employees in the division that they would generally be required to relocate near one of its designated office hubs and work in person at least three days a week.
Uber says layoffs extend beyond California
The notice also confirms that the reduction extends beyond California.
In a template letter prepared for affected employees, Uber said terminations were expected to begin on Aug. 21 at certain locations outside California.
The filing does not identify those locations, the states involved, or the number of employees affected elsewhere. Uber’s language nevertheless establishes that the California positions represent only part of a wider reduction.
Affected California employees were given 60 days’ notice and will continue receiving their full pay and benefits during that period.
The employees are not represented by a union and do not have bumping rights.
Uber cuts jobs a month after earlier restructuring
The Community Operations layoffs come roughly one month after Uber eliminated approximately 23% of the positions in its People and Places division, which includes human resources and recruiting.
Those earlier reductions affected less than 1% of Uber’s roughly 34,000-person global workforce.
Uber said at the time that the People and Places restructuring was intended to simplify the organization and was not connected to artificial intelligence.
California’s public WARN report lists 32 layoffs associated with a notice Uber submitted on June 3, the same day the company announced the People and Places cuts.
The latest July notice supplements that earlier filing and adds 41 permanent California terminations scheduled for Sept. 21.
The two notices bring Uber’s publicly reported total in California to at least 73 positions.
However, unlike the June restructuring, the new Community Operations cuts are being carried out as Uber increases its use of AI across customer support and other parts of the business.
Uber expands AI use across its business
The customer-service restructuring comes as Uber expands its use of artificial intelligence across both its internal operations and consumer products.
Uber, in its first-quarter earnings call, said that AI coding tools were being used by nearly all of its engineers, with the resulting productivity gains allowing the company to moderate hiring compared with its original 2026 plans.
In June, Uber detailed an AI-powered Cart Assistant for Uber Eats that can interpret a shopper’s request, search available products, and assemble a grocery cart.
The company has also expanded through autonomous-driving partnerships with Waymo and several other developers, positioning the Uber app as a distribution platform for robotaxi fleets without relying on a single self-driving provider.
As TheStreet previously reported, Uber is pursuing those new markets while attempting to keep its corporate organization leaner and slow the pace of hiring.
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