Relay, an AI-powered workflow automation tool built as an alternative to Zapier, shut down entirely on Monday — and TechCrunch has now pulled it into a broader running list of AI projects and startups that didn't make it.
The graveyard is a telling record of what the AI gold rush has produced on the failure side. OpenAI, despite its dominance, is well represented. The company's attempt to relaunch ChatGPT as a multi-mode super app in July was rolled back within days after users found the redesigned interface confusing. ChatGPT Atlas, a stand-alone AI web browser, lasted less than a year before being folded back into ChatGPT. Sora, OpenAI's video-sharing platform, shut down in March 2026 after struggling with high operating costs and user retention. The company has generally fared better folding features into the main ChatGPT product than launching them separately.
Apple's Siri AI delay is also chronicled in the list. Originally highlighted as a marquee Apple Intelligence feature in 2024, the improved Siri was repeatedly pushed back due to engineering issues and bugs, contributing to a $250 million settlement over marketing claims for the iPhone 16. The AI-powered version finally appeared in the iOS 27 beta this past July.
Microsoft's Recall feature, announced at Build 2024 as an AI photographic memory for Windows, triggered immediate privacy backlash. Even after a year-long redesign, a cybersecurity researcher recently demonstrated a tool that could extract Recall-captured data, reviving the controversy.
Other casualties include Notion Mail (shutting down September 22, after users preferred third-party AI agents over the built-in product), the Humane AI Pin (shut down February 2025, assets sold to HP for $116 million), and Rabbit R1 (still alive but struggling to find its footing with new vibe-coding hardware).
Smaller shutdowns also make the list: Huxe, an AI audio app built by former Google NotebookLM developers, closed in May 2026 as Spotify expanded its own AI audio tools. Yupp, a platform for comparing hundreds of AI models side by side, shut down in March 2026 after never achieving product-market fit. Figgs AI, a character role-play platform with over one million users, shut down in 2024 when the free tier became unsustainable.
The broader picture is sobering. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, roughly 42% of corporate AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned by their parent organizations, whether from insufficient funding, technical challenges, competition, difficulty scaling, or weak user demand.
