Uber is giving all of its corporate employees access to OpenAI’s enterprise tool weeks after laying off thousands.
About 30,000 employees at the ride-hailing service’s offices will have access to ChatGPT Work, the two companies said on Thursday.
The tool will connect with other programs that Uber employees use, such as Slack and Gmail, to “research information, prepare meeting briefs, create presentations, analyze data and complete workflows across applications,” a statement said.
“As AI transforms how we work, we want to give everyone the tools to innovate, solve problems and help shape Uber’s future,” Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said. Uber initially tested the tool among a group of 1,000 employees.
The rollout comes the month after Uber laid off about 10% of its corporate workforce, or about 3,300 people. The company made the job cuts to reduce management layers and reduce the number of small teams, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the time. It didn’t cite AI in its announcement.
Some laid-off employees told Business Insider that AI was doing significant parts of their jobs, from answering their questions in Slack to crafting replies to messages from riders and drivers.
Uber cited AI as a reason for an earlier round of layoffs in July, which targeted Uber’s customer service employees.
Do you have a story idea about Uber? Contact this reporter at [email protected] 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.
