AI companies want agents to handle your everyday errands—but Uber, DoorDash, and Airbnb say barely anyone is using them for that
Executives from Uber, Doordash, and Airbnb said AI agents make up a negligible amount of their businesses so far even as all three develop their own AI tools to make their services easier to use.
Key points
- From Meta’s fluffy Muse to OpenAI’s onigiri-shaped Dots, AI companies have rolled out agents they promise will help people cross things off their to-do lists, whether that’s booking a trip, ordering food, or shopping online.
- “People want to look at photos, they want to compare homes, they want to make decisions with the people they’re traveling with, and I don’t think the general-purpose agents are the best to do that.” There’s also a trust issue.
- Michael Klein, the director of product marketing at customer experience automation platform Talkdesk, told Fortune consumers aren’t confident in AI agents to make choices for them, and they won’t feel more confident until there’s more transparency about how agents collect and use their data.
Airbnb is in a similar position with low traction from AI agents, but its situation differs in that users enjoy spending more time researching and booking a trip instead of trying to get it done as quickly as possible.
Additional details
- “If you really want to nab something immediately, it’s going to be easier if you do it yourself as a human.” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi echoed that sentiment in the earnings call, saying it takes a median of 50 seconds for a customer to order an Uber and 90 seconds to order Uber Eats, so they’re unlikely to turn to an agent to do that.
- But the companies that provide those services are reporting consumers haven’t yet flocked to use those agents to buy on their behalf.
- 4 Q3 earnings call that AI agents only booked four Uber rides and 500 Uber Eats deliveries out of 320 million combined rides and food deliveries during the week of Halloween.
- Matt Maher, founder and CEO of tech research and development firm M7 Innovations, told Fortune tech giants’ AI agents are often overcomplicating simple things like booking a restaurant reservation that weren’t problems “that needed a lot of innovation” to begin with.
- Khosrowshahi said on the earnings call the baskets made with Cart Assistance are “roughly twice the average of the average basket.” DoorDash has its version of this with Ask DoorDash, which also helps users quickly build a grocery list by uploading photos or typing in what they’re in the mood to eat.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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