The AI graveyard: a running list of projects and startups that didn’t make it

Relay, an AI-powered workflow automation tool built as an alternative to Zapier, shut down entirely on Monday. The product allowed users to automate email and task workflows using AI agents, but as OpenAI, Google, and other larger platforms integrated similar automation directly into their tools, the five-year-old Relay struggled to maintain a reason to exist as a stand-alone product. Relay is one example of a broader trend where many AI bets fail to survive even within the companies that create them. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, approximately 42% of AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned by their corporate parents due to insufficient funding, technical challenges, competition, scaling difficulties, or weak user demand. This has resulted in a growing "AI graveyard" of notable products, startups, and launches that shut down, pivoted, or missed expectations. Even the largest players are not immune; OpenAI has had its share of casualties and missteps. One recent example was OpenAI's attempt to turn ChatGPT into a broader "super app." On July 9, the company updated the app to combine several experiences, including separate "Chat," "Codex," and "Work" modes, while renaming the traditional version "ChatGPT Classic." The redesign quickly drew criticism from users who found the interface confusing and cluttered, leading OpenAI to roll back the change and restore the familiar interface. Beyond this, OpenAI has also shut down several stand-alone apps and folded their features directly into ChatGPT, a strategy that has proven more successful than the redesign.