Relay, an AI-driven workflow automation platform positioned as a Zapier competitor, ceased operations entirely on Monday. The tool enabled users to automate email and task workflows through AI agents, but as OpenAI, Google, and other major platforms integrated similar automation capabilities directly into their own offerings, the five-year-old Relay found it increasingly difficult to justify its existence as a standalone product.

Relay's story—a startup overtaken by larger competitors—represents just one version of what's happening across the AI landscape right now. But many AI ventures don't even make it that far within the companies that create them. Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence indicates that roughly 42% of AI initiatives are eventually abandoned by their corporate backers. The causes are varied: inadequate funding, technical hurdles, competitive pressure, scaling difficulties, or simply insufficient user interest.

What's emerging is a growing graveyard of AI projects. The following examines some of the most prominent AI products, startups, launches, and investments that have been discontinued, pivoted, or failed to meet expectations. Rather than serving as a simple tally of failures, this should be viewed as a record of lessons these attempts can offer the broader industry.

**OpenAI has taken several stumbles**

Even the industry's giants aren't exempt from missteps. OpenAI, among the most valuable private companies globally, has experienced its own setbacks and failures.

One recent example was its effort to transform ChatGPT into a comprehensive "super app." On July 9, OpenAI updated the application to merge multiple experiences, introducing separate "Chat," "Codex," and "Work" modes while rebranding the original, familiar version as "ChatGPT Classic."

The redesign immediately sparked user complaints about a confusing and cluttered interface, prompting OpenAI to reverse the changes shortly afterward and restore the familiar ChatGPT experience.

That wasn't OpenAI's only attempt to consolidate everything under one platform. The company has also discontinued several standalone apps and absorbed their functionality directly into ChatGPT—an approach that proved more successful than the redesign.

ChatGPT Atlas, a standalone AI-powered web browser, survived less than a year before being discontinued on August 9, with its most valuable features integrated into ChatGPT.

OpenAI followed the same pattern with Operator, an AI agent capable of browsing the web and completing tasks on users' behalf. The company has also increasingly embedded image generation directly into ChatGPT, diminishing DALL-E's role as a separate destination for image creation.

Then there was Sora, OpenAI's video-sharing platform, which faced high operating costs and user-retention difficulties before shutting down in March 2026.

**Apple's Siri AI**

When Apple introduced Apple Intelligence in 2024, an enhanced Siri was among the standout features. The company promised a Siri capable of understanding context, tracking activity across apps, and completing tasks efficiently.

However, Apple repeatedly delayed the new Siri's release, citing engineering challenges and bugs. These delays ultimately contributed to a $250 million settlement related to claims about how Apple marketed the iPhone 16's AI capabilities.

Siri AI finally debuted in the iOS 27 beta this past July, with the AI-powered version rolling out to English-language users first this month; additional language support is expected to follow.

**Microsoft's Recall**

Announced at Microsoft's 2024 Build developer conference, the Recall feature was presented as an AI-powered "photographic memory" for Windows PCs, periodically capturing screenshots of user activity so they could later search their digital history.

As expected, the announcement triggered immediate privacy and security concerns. Critics contended that Recall could generate a searchable archive of highly sensitive data, including passwords, private messages, financial information, and other activities.

Microsoft delayed the feature for nearly a year, allowing time to reconsider its security and privacy safeguards. Even after a redesign, the controversy persists. A cybersecurity researcher recently developed a tool capable of extracting and displaying data captured by Recall, renewing questions about whether Microsoft has truly resolved the underlying issue.

**Notion Mail**

Notion Mail launched in April 2025 as an AI-focused email product designed to help users organize and automate their inboxes. However, the company observed that users were turning to separate AI agents to manage their email instead.

Consequently, Notion Mail is scheduled to shut down on September 22.

**Humane AI Pin**

The Humane AI Pin ranks among the most notable failures in AI hardware. Designed to deliver AI features through a wearable device rather than a traditional smartphone, Humane raised $230 million from investors and attracted considerable attention.

But the product struggled significantly with performance, and matters worsened when Humane advised customers to stop using its charging case due to a potential battery fire hazard. Humane subsequently shut down its AI Pin business in February 2025, with HP acquiring most of the company's assets for $116 million.

**Rabbit R1**

The Rabbit R1 was another heavily promoted AI device. Unveiled at CES in January 2024, the AI companion was designed to perform tasks on behalf of its owner. Rabbit reported selling 100,000 units shortly after launch.

However, strong initial sales didn't translate into a strong product. Early reviews characterized the device as unfinished, with unreliable performance and few useful integrations.

The company hasn't given up, though. It has continued updating the R1, repositioning it as a computer controller capable of performing agentic tasks. It also recently announced a new hardware initiative called "Project Cyberdeck," aimed at creating a portable device built for vibe-coding.

**Huxe**

Huxe was an AI audio app created by former developers of Google's NotebookLM that converted written information into conversational, podcast-style audio. The company shut down in May 2026, partly because larger platforms began offering similar experiences to their already substantial audiences. Spotify, for instance, has been expanding its own AI-powered audio tools.

**Yupp**

Yupp was a noteworthy AI product: a free platform that let users compare responses from hundreds of AI models side by side. Users could also vote on responses and earn cryptocurrency through the platform.

At its peak, the platform allowed users to test more than 800 models, including those from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. But according to its founders, Yupp never achieved sufficient product-market fit to survive. The platform shut down in March 2026.

**Figgs AI**

Figgs AI operated from 2023 to 2024, enabling users to create and interact with customizable AI characters for roleplay and storytelling. The platform reportedly attracted more than 1 million users, but its developers said maintaining the service for free became too costly to sustain, leading them to shut it down.