AI agents to become invisible utilities in an AI-first world: Uber CEO on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast

At a time when everyone is flocking to build deeply personal AI agents, traditional ads seem to have lost their charm. A simple sponsored placement on the Google search page or a mere ad on YouTube or Meta’s family of apps no longer seems sufficient in a personal world.

Hence comes the ‘in-between’ solution to advertising in the AI world. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi spoke on the scope for advertising in an AI-led world in his latest chat with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath.

On his People by WTF podcast, Kamath asked Khosrowshahi a question on brand discovery in an AI-first world.

Khosrowshahi responded by saying that AI agents today have become trusted gatekeepers of information, where traditional advertising based on personal data may seem like a betrayal of the assurance of deeply private personalisation.

“The ultimate solution has to be an agent that truly represents your interests, not one that’s biased because of advertising,” Khosrowshahi said.

“If the agent is going to be your operating system, it has to feel like it’s on your side. The moment you lose that trust, you lose the user,” he added, saying that ads should therefore become invisible utilities instead of mere disruptions to the digital experience.

For him, massive AI adoption will send the entire advertising industry into a reset where norms are rewritten and authenticity, as always, triumphs. Khosrowshahi said, “[For now,] only the brands that add genuine value will earn their place in the conversation.”

“I think agents can do a great job in that in-between space. But I think that final decision is going to be up to you. But that collation, that kind of bringing everything together, that could be a very, very high utility,” he added.

With the conversation taking place in San Francisco, Khosrowshahi and Kamath spoke about a range of themes, from gig economy to future mobility.

When asked about the place of drivers in a self-driving world, Khosrowshahi instead spoke about the changing tendency of businesses. For him, autonomous driving is the inevitable result of the future, forcing drivers to adapt and hinting at a possible erosion of jobs.

“Autonomous and electric vehicles will transform mobility, but the innovation curve takes time. Our job is to adapt fast, responsibly,” he added.