Gig workers fighting their deactivations on apps like Uber and Instacart say they have a new advocate: AI.
The companies often kick ride-hailing and delivery workers off of their apps — sometimes for legitimate safety or fraud reasons, other times without fully explaining why. Workers who want to get back on the apps or reach some other settlement must contact the company and initiate an arbitration process.
The procedure can be long and require parsing the contracts that bind the workers. That’s led some workers to turn to chatbots to help them negotiate with the companies. They found that AI assistance can help level the playing field with the large companies.
One deactivated Instacart worker told Business Insider that he’s using ChatGPT to challenge the company’s claim that he didn’t follow the correct route to deliver an order. The driver said he has used the chatbot to write evidence reports and estimate how much he’s lost in wages since Instacart kicked him off the app earlier this year.
The driver, who has corresponded with Instacart regarding his case, has also consulted the chatbot on when to send his latest response to Instacart — and whether he might have any luck finding pro bono legal advice.
“ChatGPT said to hold off on that for now,” he said. “We’re gonna see if we can get a lawyer.”
Since the rise of chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini, users have been turning to the tools for advice on legal, medical, and other problems. The responses from these chatbots are often written in an authoritative tone, and they can turn out official-looking documents with a prompt or two.
It also carries risks, however. Using AI-generated briefs or arguments in a legal setting can introduce errors and undermine credibility.
Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said AI is still beneficial to gig workers who have few other options.
“They’re not locked out of being able to defend themselves because they lack the financial means to hire a very good labor attorney,” he said.
Using AI to generate evidence summaries is just one part of the process, Bruno added.
Gig workers fighting deactivations in arbitration also have to make a persuasive argument to be reinstated on the apps — and even tailor that argument to the specific arbitrator hearing their case.
“I don’t think you could just spit that out of Copilot or Claude,” Bruno said.
Spokespeople for Uber and Instacart did not comment directly on workers using AI to fight deactivations. An Uber spokesperson said that the company uses “data and facts” to evaluate claims “regardless of how an appeal is submitted.”
An Instacart spokesperson said that the company does not “take deactivation lightly” and gives workers the chance to appeal those decisions.
Uber drivers and Instacart shoppers tend to have few options when they try to take on their employers. As independent contractors, companies usually have wide latitude in terminating them, and lawyers are often hesitant to represent them because of the arbitration requirements in the companies’ terms for gig workers.
That leaves many on their own — and more amenable to an assist from AI.
On Reddit pages for gig workers, some users have posted stories about using ChatGPT to write letters to Uber Eats and DoorDash requesting reinstatement of their accounts. Some wrote that the AI-generated messages worked.
One Uber driver in Tennessee told Business Insider that he consulted ChatGPT for advice after the company deactivated his account without a clear explanation. After a back-and-forth with the chatbots, he said he had a letter that cited Uber’s driver contract and asked to begin arbitration proceedings.
AI also had a strategic suggestion: Email it to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, not just the generic email for arbitration requests, the driver said.
About a week later, the driver could access his account again. “I followed AI, and I guess it worked,” he said.
The companies themselves already use AI when interacting with gig workers. Uber customer service employees, for instance, often use AI to write responses to drivers’ messages, Business Insider reported last month.
Uber and Instacart have in the past declined to say what role AI plays in the initial decision to deactivate workers. Uber said that appeals of those decisions are reviewed by “a real person.”
“Final deactivation decisions are always reviewed by a human,” the Instacart spokesperson said.
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