Key facts
- About 42% of AI initiatives are abandoned by their corporate parents, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
- Relay, an AI workflow automation tool, shut down on Monday.
- OpenAI discontinued its ChatGPT Atlas web browser on August 9.
- Humane shut down its AI Pin business in February 2025, with assets acquired by HP.
- Microsoft delayed its Recall feature due to privacy and security concerns.
- Notion Mail is scheduled to shut down on September 22.
A significant portion of artificial intelligence initiatives are failing, with about 42% ultimately abandoned by their corporate parents due to challenges such as insufficient funding, technical hurdles, competition, and weak user demand, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. This trend has led to a growing "AI graveyard" of projects and startups.
Relay, an AI-powered workflow automation tool designed as an alternative to Zapier, ceased operations on Monday. The company struggled to maintain its relevance as larger platforms like OpenAI and Google integrated similar automation features into their own products.
Even major players like OpenAI have experienced setbacks. The company recently reverted a confusing redesign of its ChatGPT app after facing user criticism. OpenAI has also discontinued standalone applications such as ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered web browser, and Operator, an AI agent for web browsing and task completion, folding their features into ChatGPT. The company also faced challenges with its video-sharing platform, Sora, due to high operating costs and user retention issues.
Apple's highly anticipated Siri AI, part of its Apple Intelligence launch in 2024, faced repeated delays due to engineering issues and bugs, contributing to a $250 million settlement over claims about its AI marketing. The new Siri was released in the iOS 27 beta in July and is rolling out to English-language users.
Microsoft's Recall feature, intended to provide a "photographic memory" for Windows PCs by taking periodic screenshots, faced immediate backlash over privacy and security concerns. Despite a redesign, a cybersecurity researcher demonstrated a tool capable of extracting captured data, raising ongoing questions about the feature's security.
Notion Mail, an AI-focused email product launched in April 2025, is scheduled to shut down on September 22 because users opted for separate AI agents for their inboxes.
In the realm of AI hardware, the Humane AI Pin, a wearable device, is noted as a significant failure. The company warned customers about potential battery fire risks with its charging case and subsequently shut down its AI Pin business in February 2025, with most of its assets acquired by HP.
Another hyped AI device, the Rabbit R1, despite strong initial sales, received early reviews describing it as unfinished with unreliable performance. The company continues to update the R1 and is developing a new hardware project.
Other AI ventures that have shut down include Huxe, an AI audio app, in May 2026, partly due to larger platforms like Spotify offering similar experiences. Yupp, a free playground for comparing AI models, shut down in March 2026 due to a lack of product-market fit. Figgs AI, which allowed users to create customizable AI characters, also shut down, citing the high cost of maintaining a free service.