Uber CTO Says 'Tokenmaxxing' Era Ending as AI Costs Fall

Uber is a big company that helps people get rides using an app.

Uber also uses artificial intelligence, or AI, to help its workers do their jobs.

Earlier this year, Uber spent all the money it had planned to spend on AI for 2026, much faster than expected.

That happened because many engineers started using a tool called Claude Code.

Uber's technology leader, Praveen Neppalli Naga, says the company has now learned to use AI more carefully.

Even though four times more employees are using advanced AI than at the start of the year, Uber is spending less money on it.

Uber saved money by cutting unneeded AI requests, reusing prompts, and choosing cheaper models.

Uber is also putting AI experts into teams like finance, legal, and marketing to make work faster.

Some jobs that used to take hours or even days now take only a few minutes.

Naga says this shows the era of 'tokenmaxxing' — spending as many AI tokens as possible — is coming to an end.