The Zhitong Finance App learned that Uber (UBER.US) said it has cut employees by 10% in its customer service department. This move is part of its strategy to promote organizational streamlining and comprehensively “embrace artificial intelligence (AI)”.
The company announced a layoff plan for the community operations team on Wednesday. An Uber spokesperson said in an email that the company is working to “simplify operational processes, strengthen offline team collaboration, and continue to deepen the application of AI technology.” The spokesperson also revealed that team members who previously worked remotely were asked to move to the company's hub office in line with Uber's return to office policy.
Megha Yethatika (Megha Yethatika), vice president of global community operations at Uber, confessed in an internal memo sent to the department on Wednesday: “Our organizational structure has become too complex and fragmented.” She pointed out that the department “has made some progress” in AI applications, “but to unlock the full potential of this technology, we need to establish a more efficient organizational structure to carry the deep implementation of AI. On top of a fragmented process, cutting-edge technology cannot be deployed at scale.”
In recent months, from financial services company Block (XYZ.US) to cloud computing giant ORCL.US (ORCL.US), more and more companies have viewed AI as an important consideration for layoffs. This is the first time Uber has clearly linked layoffs to AI efficiency improvements. This is also the second round of personnel adjustments the company has carried out in less than two months to simplify the team structure.
In June of this year, after the new president took office, Uber laid off 23% of its so-called “HR department” employees, accounting for less than 1% of its 34,000 employees worldwide. Uber did not disclose the exact size of its customer service team.
In May of this year, Uber said it would slow down the pace of recruitment due to the widespread use of AI internally. However, the recruitment page on the company's official website is still open for more than 500 jobs, including engineer positions required to support autonomous taxi cooperation projects.