Uber lays off 23% of people division as company streamlines operations and pushes deeper into AI

Uber is cutting nearly a quarter of the staff in its people division at a time when the company is spending heavily on AI tools and automation, marking the latest workforce reduction at a major tech company seeking greater efficiency.

The ridesharing and food delivery giant is laying off 23% of employees in its People and Places division, which includes human resources, recruiting, workplace facilities, and culture teams. The cuts represent less than 1% of Uber’s global workforce of roughly 34,000 employees, according to the company.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a memo that the changes are intended to strengthen the organization.

“The changes are necessary to maximize the effectiveness of the People team and the enormous potential ahead of us,” Khosrowshahi wrote.

The restructuring is led by Jill Hazelbaker, who was promoted last month to president and chief corporate affairs officer. In a note to employees, Hazelbaker said the company is trying to simplify a structure that had grown difficult to manage.

Some parts of the organization had become “complex and fragmented, with overlapping responsibilities, unclear ownership, and teams operating too far from the businesses and partners they support,” she wrote.

Bloomberg first reported the layoffs.

Uber cuts 23% of HR and recruiting staff amid broader AI-driven efficiency push as the new president takes over

According to Bloomberg, many of the affected positions are senior-level roles within the People and Places organization. Uber’s roughly 10 million drivers are classified separately as independent contractors and are not affected by the changes.

“Uber Technologies Inc. said it is cutting 23% of jobs in a division that includes human resources, recruitment, workplace facilities and culture, part of a move by the rideshare company’s newly promoted president Jill Hazelbaker to simplify team structure,” Bloomberg reported.

The announcement arrives amid a broader trend across the technology sector. Companies are trimming headcount, flattening management layers, and turning to AI-powered tools to automate tasks that once required larger teams.

Uber did not link the layoffs directly to AI. Still, the company’s growing investment in the technology has drawn attention in recent months.

This week, Uber confirmed that employee access to certain agentic AI tools is managed through spending tiers. The base tier starts at $1,500 per month, with higher limits available depending on usage.

Uber’s technology leadership previously disclosed that the company burned through its planned 2026 AI budget within just four months, according to reporting by The Information.

In an email to CNBC, an Uber spokesperson said the spending limits are “soft limits” tied primarily to agentic AI and coding tools, with budgets allocated on a per-tool basis.

“We have had spend tiers on some agentic AI tools for several months,” the spokesperson said.

The layoffs and AI spending are unfolding against a backdrop of growing pressure on large technology companies to do more with fewer people. Across Silicon Valley, executives are increasingly framing AI as a way to increase productivity, reduce repetitive work, and scale operations without adding equivalent headcount.

Uber has not said whether AI contributed to this latest round of job cuts. What is clear is that the company is reorganizing key corporate functions at the same time it is making larger bets on AI tools that are becoming part of daily work across the business.