Relay, an AI-powered workflow automation tool built as a replacement for Zapier, shut down permanently on Monday. The product allows users to automate email and task workflows using AI agents, but five-year-old Relay struggled to maintain its reason for existing as a standalone product as OpenAI, Google, and other large platforms built similar automation directly into their own tools.
Relay — a startup being outpaced by a big platform — is one version of the ongoing story. But many AI bets don’t survive even within the companies that build them. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, approximately 42% of AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned by the parent company. The reasons can vary, including lack of funding, technical challenges, competition, difficulty scaling, or simply weak user demand.
The result is a growing AI graveyard. Below are some of the most notable AI products, startups, launches, and bets that closed, pivoted, or significantly missed expectations. Think of this not as a scorecard of flops, but as a record of what these attempts (hopefully) teach the rest of the industry.
OpenAI has experienced some stumbles
Even the biggest companies are not immune. OpenAI, one of the world’s most valuable private companies, has had its fair share of casualties and missteps. One recent example was an attempt to turn ChatGPT into a broader “super app.” On July 9, OpenAI updated the app to combine several experiences, including separate “Chat”, “Codex”, and “Work” modes, while also renaming the previous familiar version to “ChatGPT Classic.”
This redesign quickly drew criticism from users who found the new interface confusing and cluttered, and OpenAI quickly rolled back the changes and reinstated the familiar ChatGPT interface.
This wasn’t OpenAI’s only attempt to bring everything under one roof. The company is also discontinuing some standalone apps and building their functionality directly into ChatGPT. This strategy worked better than the redesign. ChatGPT Atlas, a standalone AI-powered web browser, lasted less than a year before its most useful features were absorbed into ChatGPT and retired on August 9th.
The company did the same with Operator, an AI agent that can browse the web and complete tasks on your behalf. OpenAI has increasingly incorporated image generation directly into ChatGPT, reducing the role of DALL-E as its own separate destination for image creation.
We also can’t forget the video sharing platform Sora. Sora suffered from high operating costs and user retention challenges and was shut down in March 2026.
Apple’s Siri AI
When Apple announced Apple Intelligence in 2024, an improved Siri was one of the featured features. The proposal promised a Siri that understands context, knows what’s going on between apps, and can perform tasks effectively.
However, Apple has repeatedly delayed the release of the new Siri, citing various reasons such as engineering issues and bugs. The delay ultimately led to a $250 million settlement over claims related to how Apple marketed the iPhone 16’s AI features.
Siri AI finally arrived in the iOS 27 beta this July, and the new AI-powered version was first rolled out to English users this month. Other languages will also be supported.
microsoft recall
Announced at the 2024 Build developer conference, Microsoft’s Recall feature is pitched as an AI-powered “photo memory” for Windows PCs that periodically takes screenshots of what you’ve been doing, allowing you to go back and search your digital history later.
As expected, the announcement sparked an immediate backlash over privacy and security. Critics claimed that Recall could create searchable archives of highly sensitive information, including passwords, private messages, financial details, and other activities. Microsoft delayed the introduction of this feature for nearly a year, giving the company time to rethink its security and privacy protections.
Even after the redesign, the controversy persists. Cybersecurity researchers recently built a tool that can extract and display the data captured by Recall. This once again raised questions about whether Microsoft actually solved the underlying problem.
Notion mail
Notion Mail launched in April 2025 as an AI-focused email product designed to help users organize and automate their inboxes. But the company noticed that users were using a different AI agent to handle their email inboxes. As a result, Notion Mail is scheduled to shut down on September 22nd.
humane AI pin
The Humane AI Pin is perhaps one of the most well-known failures in AI hardware. Humane, which is designed to deliver AI capabilities through wearable devices rather than traditional smartphones, has raised $230 million from investors and garnered significant attention.
However, the product has struggled tremendously in terms of performance, a situation made worse by Humane warning customers to stop using the charging case due to the possibility of battery fire. Humane then shut down its AI Pin business in February 2025, and most of its assets were acquired by HP for $116 million.
Rabbit R1
Rabbit R1 is another highly touted AI device. Announced at CES in January 2024, the AI companion was designed to perform tasks on behalf of its owner. Rabbit announced that it had sold 100,000 units immediately after its release.
However, just because the initial sales were strong does not mean the product was successful. Early reviews described the device as unreliable, with unreliable performance, and a limited number of useful integrations.
However, the company has not given up yet. The company continues to update R1, positioning it as a computer controller that can perform agent tasks. The company also recently announced a new hardware project called “Project Cyberdeck” aimed at creating a portable device built for vibe coding.
Hax
Huxe is an AI audio app built by former developers of Google’s NotebookLM to convert written information into conversational, podcast-style audio.
The company closed in May 2026. One reason for this is that large platforms have started offering similar experiences to their existing large audiences. For example, Spotify is expanding its own AI-powered audio tools.
I agree
Yupp was an interesting AI product. It was a free playground where users could compare responses from hundreds of AI models side by side. Users can also vote on answers and earn cryptocurrencies through the platform.
At its peak, the platform allowed users to test over 800 models, including models from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. But Yupp was unable to achieve a strong enough product-market fit to survive, according to its founders. This platform was shut down in March 2026.
Fig AI
Figgs AI will run from 2023 to 2024, allowing users to create and interact with customizable AI characters for role-playing and storytelling. The platform reportedly attracted more than 1 million users, but developers said they shut down the service because it became too expensive to maintain for free.
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