{"slug": "uber-lays-off-10-of-customer-service-workers-and-calls-others-back-to-working-in", "title": "Uber lays off 10% of customer service workers and calls others back to working in the office, citing AI", "summary": "Uber is laying off about 10% of its community operations team and requiring remote employees to relocate to offices, citing artificial intelligence as the reason. Megha Yethadka, Uber's vice president of global community operations, said in a memo that AI presents \"a massive opportunity for us to accelerate output, improve quality, and scale customer solutions at pace.\" The layoffs add Uber to a list of companies cutting jobs in the name of AI, including Block, IBM, and Snap.", "body_md": "Uber is cutting customer service roles — and it says artificial intelligence is the reason.\n\nThe ride-hailing company is laying off about 10% of its community operations team and asking remote employees to relocate to a city with an Uber office and work there three days a week, it said in a statement on Thursday. Bloomberg earlier reported the news.\n\nAI presents \"a massive opportunity for us to accelerate output, improve quality, and scale customer solutions at pace,\" Megha Yethadka, Uber's vice president of global community operations, wrote in a memo to the team on Wednesday.\n\n\"We've made some strides, but to unlock this potential, we need an effective organization to layer AI on,\" Yethadka wrote. \"We cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes.\"\n\nAn Uber spokesperson said the company informed the team on Wednesday about the** **\"structural changes we are making to simplify operations, strengthen in-person collaboration, and continue to embrace AI.\"\n\nThe layoffs add Uber to the list of [companies that have cut jobs](https://www.businessinsider.com/list-companies-replacing-human-employees-with-ai-layoffs-workforce-reductions) in the name of AI. Others this year include Block, IBM, and Snap.\n\nLast month, [Uber laid off](https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-layoffs-ai-dara-khosrowshahi-2026-6) a quarter of its human resources and recruitment staff. The cuts affected less than 1% of the company's 34,000-person global workforce and weren't connected to AI, Uber said at the time.\n\n[CEO Dara Khosrowshahi](https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-slowing-hiring-fund-ai-investment-2026-5) has said that Uber is slowing down hiring as it invests more in AI.\n\n*Have a tip? Contact this reporter at *__abitter@businessinsider.com__* or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; *here's our __guide to sharing information securely__*.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uber-lays-off-10-of-customer-service-workers-and-calls-others-back-to-working-in", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-layoffs-ai-prompts-cuts-to-customer-service-jobs-2026-7", "published_at": "2026-07-23 14:36:08+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-23 14:54:25.727309+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Uber", "Megha Yethadka", "Block", "IBM", "Snap", "Dara Khosrowshahi"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uber-lays-off-10-of-customer-service-workers-and-calls-others-back-to-working-in", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uber-lays-off-10-of-customer-service-workers-and-calls-others-back-to-working-in.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uber-lays-off-10-of-customer-service-workers-and-calls-others-back-to-working-in.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uber-lays-off-10-of-customer-service-workers-and-calls-others-back-to-working-in.jsonld"}}