Failures
Deployments that were quietly switched off
Abandoned, rolled back, or costing more than they saved. Almost nobody publishes these, which is exactly why we do. One a month, named, with the money.
| Company | What they switched off | Ran for | Cost | Why it ended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marchetti Grocers | Shelf-scanning robot fleet, 3 stores | 9 months | €1.4M | Could not distinguish a misplaced jar from a customer holding one; staff stopped acting on alerts |
| Northgate Apparel | Autonomous refund agent | 6 weeks | £61,000 | Approved refunds outside policy; no spend ceiling in the tool |
| Trellis Foundry | AI production scheduling, twice | 14 months total | $310,000 | Real constraints lived with the foremen, not in the ERP the model read |
| Aesthetify GmbH (Recklinghausen, Germany) | Website AI chatbot answering patient questions and booking appointments | Live until April 2025; switched off after a 10 April 2025 warning letter, relaunched with a filter | EUR 260 fee plus interest, all court costs, and an order backed by fines of up to EUR 250,000 per breach | It told users the two managing doctors were board-certified specialists; they are not (OLG Hamm, 4 UKl 3/25) |