AI costs becoming harder to justify: Uber COO on exhausting 2026's AI budget over Claude

Uber COO Andrew Macdonald said it's becoming increasingly "harder to justify" the rising AI costs. Macdonald referred to Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga's revelation that the company exhausted its AI budget for 2026 in months over Claude. He noted that rising token consumption for Claude Code hadn't yet shown a clear connection to the delivery of more useful consumer-facing features.