Uber and DoorDash have now counted the food orders that AI agents placed for customers. These agents are software that carries out a purchase on a person's behalf. Both totals are in the hundreds. Read quickly, that sounds like weak demand for delegation. I would read it as a weak test.
Dinner already works. An app built for the job gets food to the door in a few taps, so an agent has almost nothing to rescue.
The need for help shows up where the existing path breaks down: the insurance appeal left unfiled, the refund nobody chased, the benefits form a daughter completes after her own workday. Nobody has measured delegation there yet.
- Uber, Halloween week: about 500 agent-placed Uber Eats orders. The 320 million trips reported alongside them combine rides and deliveries, so they can't show an agent share.
- DoorDash: "several hundred" agent orders, with no time period given. Only a small group of test partners had access, mostly for office lunches.
- What management says: both companies call it early. DoorDash's CEO expects bigger, considered purchases to suit agents better. The counts don't test that view.
- Abandoned errands (2019 survey): 24.4% of insured adults aged 18–64 delayed or skipped needed care because of paperwork.
- Caregivers (2024 survey): 26% want more help with paperwork and benefit applications.