AI companies want agents to handle your everyday errands—but Uber, DoorDash, and Airbnb say barely anyone is using them for that

From Meta’s fluffy Muse to OpenAI’s onigiri-shaped Dots, AI companies have rolled out agents they promise will help people cross things off their to-do lists, whether that’s booking a trip, ordering food, or shopping online. But the companies that provide those services are reporting consumers haven’t yet flocked to use those agents to buy on their behalf. Executives from Uber, Doordash, and Airbnb said AI agents make up a negligible amount of their businesses so far even as all three develop their own AI tools to make their services easier to use. Uber CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy told analysts on the rideshare app’s Nov. 4 Q3 earnings call that AI agents only booked four Uber rides and 500 Uber Eats deliveries out of 320 million combined rides and food deliveries during the week of Halloween. DoorDash CEO Tony Xu similarly told analysts on the company’s Oct. 29 Q3 earnings call AI agents are generating “maybe several hundred orders in total across the time that they have been up and running.” Muse and Dots both launched in September. One explanation for the low engagement is that agents are promising to automate tasks that are already easy. Matt Maher, founder and CEO of tech research and development firm M7 Innovations, told Fortune tech giants’ AI agents are often overcomplicating simple things like booking a restaurant reservation that weren’t problems “that needed a lot of innovation” to begin with. “Big Tech companies] bludgeon us with solutions that are desperately looking for problems,” Maher said. “If you really want to nab something immediately, it’s going to be easier if you do it yourself as a human.” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi echoed that sentiment in the earnings call, saying it takes a median of 50 seconds for a customer to order an Uber and 90 seconds to order Uber Eats, so they’re unlikely to turn to an agent to do that. Airbnb is in a similar position with low traction from AI agents, but its situation differs in that users enjoy spending more time researching and booking a trip instead of trying to get it done as quickly as possible. CEO Brian Chesky told analysts on the Nov. 5 Q3 earnings call that out of Airbnb’s “nearly half a million bookings” a day, a “a very non-material number” of them happen through AI agents Muse and Instinct. He said while agents “are good at simple routine tasks,” planning a trip is different because travel is “aspirational,” saying 80% of travelers say they like researching their trips. “Discovering where to go and where to stay is part of the experience,” Chesky said. “People want to look at photos, they want to compare homes, they want to make decisions with the people they’re traveling with, and I don’t think the general-purpose agents are the best to do that.” There’s also a trust issue. Michael Klein, the director of product marketing at customer experience automation platform Talkdesk, told Fortune consumers aren’t confident in AI agents to make choices for them, and they won’t feel more confident until there’s more transparency about how agents collect and use their data. “Right now, agentic commerce still needs to earn shoppers’ trust and buy-in,” Klein said. “For example, for a shopper to feel comfortable sharing their credit card information with an AI agent, they want to know where, how, and why that information is going to be used.” Trying to enhance user experience But this lukewarm reception to third-party AI agents hasn’t stopped Uber, DoorDash, and Airbnb from using AI to improve their customer experience. Uber Eats customers, for instance, can use Cart Assistance to upload a handwritten grocery list or recipe screenshot to the app and AI will fill up their basket with the items. Khosrowshahi said on the earnings call the baskets made with Cart Assistance are “roughly twice the average of the average basket.” DoorDash has its version of this with Ask DoorDash, which also helps users quickly build a grocery list by uploading photos or typing in what they’re in the mood to eat. Text DoorDash also allows users place orders by texting rather than opening the app. Airbnb is also working on its own AI agent that will help users plan trips and manage their reservations, with Chesky telling analysts Airbnb will start rolling it out early next year. “What we are doing is developing a custom-designed, AI-native experience that responds to what guests are looking for,” Chesky said on the earnings call. “Over time, we want our agent to help guests plan their entire trip on Airbnb, all in one place.” But that doesn’t mean the companies are shutting out third-party AI agents. Khosrowshahi said on the earnings call Uber “will have discussions with third-party AI agents” and views it as “another opportunity to reach our platform.” “Every single AI system company is talking to us, and we’re really now negotiating the terms of trade,” Khosrowshahi added.