Many AI products have already shut down, even from big names

Many AI products have already shut down, and the list includes big names. OpenAI discontinued its Atlas browser on August 9, less than a year after launch. Relay, a workflow automation tool, closed in August. S&P Global Market Intelligence says about 42% of AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned by the companies that start them.

Why products disappear

Relay let people automate email and task workflows with AI agents. Then OpenAI, Google and others built similar automation into their own tools. Relay, five years old, struggled to justify existing on its own. Chatbot platform Character.ai also filed for bankruptcy five years after it launched.

S&P lists several reasons projects get dropped: not enough funding, technical problems, competition, trouble scaling, or weak demand. Notion Mail fits the pattern. It launched in April 2025, but Notion saw that users were handling email with separate AI agents instead. It was scheduled to shut down on September 22.

Big companies stumble too

OpenAI tried to turn ChatGPT into a "super app" on July 9, with separate Chat, Codex and Work modes. Users found it confusing and cluttered, and OpenAI soon rolled it back. The company has had better luck folding stand-alone apps into ChatGPT, as with Atlas and Operator. Its video platform Sora shut down in March 2026 after high costs and trouble keeping users.

Apple promised a smarter Siri in 2024, then delayed it repeatedly. That contributed to a $250 million settlement over how Apple marketed the iPhone 16's AI abilities. The new Siri appeared in the iOS 27 beta in July and is rolling out this month to English-language users first.

Microsoft's Recall feature takes periodic screenshots so you can search your own computer history. It drew a privacy backlash and was delayed for nearly a year. A security researcher recently built a tool that could pull out data Recall had captured, so questions remain.

Gadgets that fell short

• Humane's AI Pin raised $230 million, struggled with performance and shut down in February 2025. HP bought most of its assets for $116 million.
• Humane also warned customers to stop using the Pin's charging case because of a possible battery fire risk.
• Rabbit said it sold 100,000 R1 units, but early reviews called it unfinished. The company is still updating it.

What to do

Before you build a workflow around an AI tool or pay for a niche app, ask whether it could disappear. Also ask whether a tool you already use might soon do the same job. Several products on this list lost out for exactly that reason.