The closure of Relay, an AI-driven workflow automation platform positioned as a Zapier competitor, marks another milestone in a growing graveyard of artificial intelligence initiatives. The five-year-old startup ceased operations on Monday after major technology giants such as Google and OpenAI integrated similar automation capabilities directly into their own ecosystems, eroding the need for a standalone product.
Relay’s fate illustrates a broader trend documented by S&P Global Market Intelligence, which reports that approximately 42% of corporate AI projects are ultimately abandoned. These cancellations stem from a variety of factors, including insufficient capital, technical bottlenecks, scaling difficulties, and weak market demand. Beyond individual startups, even industry giants are experiencing significant setbacks with their own AI ventures.
OpenAI, currently one of the most valuable private companies globally, has faced its own series of missteps. In July, the company attempted to transform ChatGPT into a comprehensive “super app” by introducing distinct modes for chat, coding, and work, while rebranding the original interface as “ChatGPT Classic.” The overhaul received immediate criticism for creating a cluttered and confusing user experience, prompting OpenAI to quickly reverse the changes.
OpenAI has also moved to discontinue several standalone applications, folding their functionalities into the main ChatGPT platform. ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered web browser, was shut down on August 9 after less than a year of operation. Similarly, Operator, an agent designed to autonomously browse the web and execute tasks, was absorbed into the core product. The role of DALL-E has also diminished as image generation capabilities were integrated directly into ChatGPT. Additionally, the company’s video-sharing platform, Sora, was discontinued in March 2026 due to high operational costs and challenges in retaining users.
In the hardware sector, Apple’s ambitions for Siri have encountered substantial delays. Announced alongside Apple Intelligence in 2024, the revamped Siri was promised to offer deeper contextual understanding and cross-app functionality. However, persistent engineering issues and bugs led to repeated postponements, contributing to a $250 million settlement in May 2026 regarding claims that Apple misled consumers about iPhone 16 AI capabilities. The new Siri AI finally debuted in the iOS 27 beta in July, with an English-language rollout expected this month.
Microsoft also faced significant controversy with its Recall feature, unveiled at the 2024 Build conference. Designed to provide a searchable photographic history of Windows PC activity, the tool triggered immediate backlash over privacy and security risks. After delaying launch for nearly a year, Microsoft released a redesigned version, but concerns persist; a recent cybersecurity study demonstrated that the system could still be exploited to extract sensitive data.
Among independent startups, Notion Mail is scheduled to shut down on September 22. Launched in April 2025 as an AI-native email client, the product found that users preferred managing their inboxes using separate AI agents, rendering the dedicated tool obsolete.
The hardware landscape has been particularly unforgiving. Humane, which raised $230 million for its AI Pin wearable, shut down its business in February 2025 after the device suffered from poor performance and safety warnings regarding battery fires in its charging case. HP acquired most of Humane’s assets for $116 million. Similarly, Rabbit, which garnered attention for its R1 AI companion device announced at CES in January 2024, saw early reviews describe the product as unfinished. Despite reporting 100,000 sales, the company has struggled to deliver on its promises, though it recently announced a new portable device called “Project Cyberdeck.” Other casualties include Huxe, an audio app founded by former NotebookLM developers that closed in May 2026 as Spotify expanded its own AI audio tools, and Yupp, a platform allowing users to compare hundreds of AI models, which shut down in March 2026 due to a lack of product-market fit. Finally, Figgs AI, a roleplay and storytelling platform that attracted over one million users, ceased operations in 2024 after determining that maintaining the service for free was financially unsustainable.
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