Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on AI and Uber Teens — Full Video

04.10.2023 - 17:15 / skift.com / Dara Khosrowshahi / Srividya Kalyanaraman

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi took the stage at Skift Global Forum in New York City last week and discussed Uber’s high burn rate, its use of artificial intelligence, and the United Kingdom as a test market.

Khosrowshahi also discussed upcoming product releases like Uber Teens, Uber becoming a super app and how essential the delivery service (Uber Eats) is to the business today. 

He also touched upon the company’s use of AI and said, “Uber has been an AI powered company for years and years and years. When you’re routing your estimated time of arrival, whether we batch your delivery pricing, all of it is based on AI algorithms.”  

Watch the full video of Khosrowshahi’s interview below.

Rafat Ali: All right. We’re here for the best session of the day Dara has promised

Dara Khosrowshahi: No pressure. No pressure.

Ali: Dara has promised. At this point, Uber is a verb, Dara is a verb in the industry.

Khosrowshahi: I was not aware.

Ali: Dara’s not aware. Okay. In our world, Dara is a verb. Can we play this video with the first video? Is it set up?

Dennis: TripAdvisor instant booking. You’ve been shut at.

Khosrowshahi: Where’s the softball question here, Dennis? Come on.

Ali: The context for that question when you were at Expedia and Dennis, who you know very well, obviously, was just coming at you from left and right and left and right for all types of questions.

Khosrowshahi: That’s why you’re interviewing me and Dennis isn’t.

Ali: Dennis isn’t.

 Khosrowshahi: I’m kidding.

Ali: Let me start with a softball. I’m going to read a quote. “Uber has…” This is the Financial Times. “Uber has proven that it can stop the bleeding, but it has $33 billion of accumulated deficit on the balance sheet. It has not yet proven that it is a high return on investment business, a high return on capital business.” That’s my softball.

Khosrowshahi: Thank you. You want me to respond to that?

Ali: Yes.

Khosrowshahi: I think the Financial Times is right. Since I joined the company six years ago, the company was burning, call it, $3-$4 billion in cash flow a year. We were a verb. We are a verb. It was a very large asset, incredible company, incredibly innovative. But we have had to adjust to the realities of life, which is at some point you have to turn from that burn and growth at any costs to profitable growth.

 I think in certainly our industry, and by any metric, we have been a leader in the field. In the last quarter we did over 2.3 billion transactions just in the quarter, over 30 billion in bookings, growing at 18% on a constant currency basis — very, very strong growth rates. But more importantly, we had $1.1 billion in free cash flow and we were profitable for the first time for the company. That was the first time, but now it’s up