ETtechUber will double its India tech workforce in the next 3-5 years as the country becomes a key hub for development, said Praveen Neppalli Naga, global chief technology officer, mobility and delivery.
Naga, in his first visit to India after taking on the new role, told ET that Uber has expanded fast in India since establishing the hub in 2014 on the back of quality engineering talent available in the country.
The company’s engineering team currently employs 2,200, double of what the company employed 3 years ago, across functions such as engineering, data science, design and product. “While we cannot share the numbers now, we will grow at the same rate as we have and will double the workforce in the next 3-5 years,” Naga said.
One of the biggest challenges for companies globally as they navigate the changing technology landscape has been talent. At the same time, with use of AI tools and rising productivity, companies are looking at reducing the workforce.
However, Naga explained that for global technology companies there are not enough people to build products and services. But with AI, one can build everything that needs to be built and the only limitation is that of ideas, Naga said.
“With AI making engineering productive, what was built in six months could be built in a month and what was built in three years can be built in a year,” he added.
Talking about the work that is happening in India, Naga said that apart from core infrastructure support, the Indian engineers are also building products for the global audience. This includes a core ads platform for delivery, which is not available in India but in other markets, Uber Earner, and Uber Fleets, a SaaS offering for large fleet providers plug in their cars to check utilization of cars and their drivers.
In addition to customer support, Naga said that the engineering and technology team is leveraging AI to build and improve product experiences. This includes booking a cab using voice. Naga said that the work for this is ongoing in this front and will be first deployed in the US before bringing it to other markets.
The firm is also mulling its own AI model since they have proprietary data to build pricing and matching algorithms, for delivery and personalisation for the future. “But we need to make sure of the privacy aspects,” he said.
Globally, sustainability is one of the key focus areas for the company. In India, the firm has partnered with multiple EV fleet operators such as Everest Fleet, Refex Green and Lithium Urban Technologies. ET had earlier reported that Uber was also in talks with BluSmart for onboarding the latter’s fleet, which the latest reports indicate has ended. Naga did not comment on the query from ET regarding the same.
Naga, in his first visit to India after taking on the new role, told ET that Uber has expanded fast in India since establishing the hub in 2014 on the back of quality engineering talent available in the country.
The company’s engineering team currently employs 2,200, double of what the company employed 3 years ago, across functions such as engineering, data science, design and product. “While we cannot share the numbers now, we will grow at the same rate as we have and will double the workforce in the next 3-5 years,” Naga said.
One of the biggest challenges for companies globally as they navigate the changing technology landscape has been talent. At the same time, with use of AI tools and rising productivity, companies are looking at reducing the workforce.
However, Naga explained that for global technology companies there are not enough people to build products and services. But with AI, one can build everything that needs to be built and the only limitation is that of ideas, Naga said.
“With AI making engineering productive, what was built in six months could be built in a month and what was built in three years can be built in a year,” he added.
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Talking about the work that is happening in India, Naga said that apart from core infrastructure support, the Indian engineers are also building products for the global audience. This includes a core ads platform for delivery, which is not available in India but in other markets, Uber Earner, and Uber Fleets, a SaaS offering for large fleet providers plug in their cars to check utilization of cars and their drivers.
In addition to customer support, Naga said that the engineering and technology team is leveraging AI to build and improve product experiences. This includes booking a cab using voice. Naga said that the work for this is ongoing in this front and will be first deployed in the US before bringing it to other markets.
The firm is also mulling its own AI model since they have proprietary data to build pricing and matching algorithms, for delivery and personalisation for the future. “But we need to make sure of the privacy aspects,” he said.
Globally, sustainability is one of the key focus areas for the company. In India, the firm has partnered with multiple EV fleet operators such as Everest Fleet, Refex Green and Lithium Urban Technologies. ET had earlier reported that Uber was also in talks with BluSmart for onboarding the latter’s fleet, which the latest reports indicate has ended. Naga did not comment on the query from ET regarding the same.
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