Tech Explained: Uber engineers built an AI clone of their CEO to predict his reactions before meetings – Firstpost in Simple Terms

Move over chatbots and virtual assistants, Uber has gone a step further. The company’s engineers have reportedly built an AI clone of CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and it’s not just a side project.

Speaking on The Diary of a CEO, Khosrowshahi said he discovered the digital doppelganger by surprise.

“One of my team members told me that some teams have built a ‘Dara AI’,” he recalled. “They basically make the presentation to the Dara AI as prep for making a presentation to me.”

The AI clone, he explained, helps employees anticipate the kind of feedback he would give, and tweak their slide decks before the real meeting. “You can imagine, by the time something comes to me, there’s been a prep, a meeting, and the deck has been beautifully honed. So they have Dara AI to tune their prep,” he said, amused.

If you thought only interns had to deal with pre-meeting jitters, imagine practising in front of your boss’s AI clone that never gets tired, distracted, or forgiving.

From Uber rides to AI vibes

This revelation highlights how deeply artificial intelligence has woven itself into Uber’s DNA. Once known purely for transforming ride-sharing, Uber is now steering hard into the AI lane, and according to its CEO, there’s no turning back.

Khosrowshahi revealed that 90 per cent of Uber’s software engineers are already using AI to make their jobs faster and smarter. Around 30 per cent are “power users”, meaning they’re not just coding faster but actively rethinking Uber’s technological architecture with AI at the centre.

“They’re manufacturing the bricks that go into the system,” he said, “and there are architects who are thinking about what the system should look like.” In other words, Uber’s workforce is learning to build, test, and even question the blueprints of the company with AI as their new creative partner.

But, Khosrowshahi isn’t ready to let machines run the boardroom just yet. “AI has to make more progress before it can fully replace what executives do,” he cautioned. Still, with an AI version of himself already giving feedback, it’s safe to say the future at Uber is getting more robotic by the day.

Goodbye engineers, hello GPUs?

The Uber CEO also joked about what the next phase of this transformation might look like, one where hiring engineers takes a backseat to buying more GPUs.

“At that point,” he quipped, “instead of adding an engineer, I should add agents and buy some more GPUs from Nvidia.”

That one-liner may sound like a tech geek’s inside joke, but it sums up the direction of Uber’s evolution, an AI-first company where even the CEO might one day be outperformed by his own digital twin.

For now, “Dara AI” remains a curious and clever office experiment, a testament to how quickly AI is reshaping corporate culture. The line between human leadership and machine-assisted management is blurring faster than a late-night Uber ride through London traffic.