Uber caps employee AI spending after spending four months’ budget.

AI is getting expensive, and some companies are cutting back on use in an effort to reduce costs.

That group includes Uber, which recently instituted internal usage limits as a way to cut down on its excessive AI spending.

Bloomberg reports the company created a new rule that sets a monthly limit of $1,500 per employee and per agent on coding tools, including Anthropic’s Cloud Code or Cursors. The company says usage can be tracked through an internal dashboard that every employee has access to, although, in some cases, limits can be exceeded with permission.

This news is perhaps not too surprising, since in April the company’s CTO revealed it. The ridesharing giant had spent its entire annual AI budget in just four months. It appears that Uber encouraged employees to use AI “as much as possible” and even competitively ranked their internal use on internal leader boards, the report said. first reported.

Also Also, Uber’s COO, Andrew McDonald, recently raised doubts about the productivity impact of AI during a podcast appearance, saying “it’s very hard to draw a line” between the use of AI and new consumer features.

Uber’s cuts raise a broader issue the tech industry is currently facing:

As enterprises pour money into AI, where exactly is the return on investment? In fact, AI ROI remains so far a largely theoretical phenomenon. Everyone is hopeful that the investment will eventually come to fruition – although some companies are clearly getting a little restless while they wait.