AI Can Order Your Uber: The Hidden Feature Nobody Uses

Balaji Krishnamurthy, Uber’s chief financial officer, shared these numbers during the analysts’ call after the company released its third-quarter 2026 results.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged that adoption is still in its early stages, although the company believes that intelligent assistants could become another channel to bring users into its ecosystem.

The paradox is that this limited uptake of AI agents coincides with substantial growth in Uber’s core operations. In the third quarter of 2026, the company reported 4.061 billion trips and orders, up 16% year over year, while revenue reached $14.766 billion, a 10% increase compared with the same period in 2025.

Gross bookings — the total dollar value of services ordered through the platform — rose to $59.819 billion, a 20% increase. Those figures indicate that the business is expanding, even if bookings made through AI agents are not yet a material part of activity.

Unlike a traditional chatbot that answers questions or provides guidance, an AI agent can carry out actions in response to a natural-language request.

To do that, these agents must integrate with a company’s services: checking availability and fares, and orchestrating the different steps required to complete a request. Uber already supports such interactions through developer tools that allow external services to interface with its platform.

Can you request an Uber through AI in Mexico?

Although AI agents can connect with mobility services in some markets, availability varies by region. In Mexico there has not yet been a public confirmation that users can both request and complete an Uber ride using the major smart assistant integrations.

One of the projects in progress is a tie-up between Uber and ChatGPT. That integration is scheduled to go live on November 18, 2026, starting in the United States, and will let users ask about transportation options via conversational interaction with the assistant.

Amazon is also working to add mobility services to its assistant, Alexa+. When Amazon announced Alexa+’s arrival in Mexico in January 2026, it named Uber and Rappi among partners it was collaborating with to expand the assistant’s capabilities in the country.

Uber is banking on AI, but users still favor the app

Uber’s interest in AI agents reflects a broader shift across the tech industry. Companies like OpenAI, Google and Amazon want their assistants to move beyond answering queries and start performing real actions — from arranging transportation to completing purchases and booking services.

For platforms such as Uber, this change offers the chance to capture demand coming from new channels, but it also means part of the customer relationship might shift to assistants built by other companies.

On the analysts’ call, Khosrowshahi noted that there are many different AI assistants and expects their number to keep growing. From his viewpoint, platforms capable of delivering services in the physical world stand to gain from that expansion. For now, however, the metrics underline a significant gap between industry expectations and current consumer behavior.