I’ve been reading about how a lot of these new AI agent tools that companies are buying aren’t really that different from the old automation software we used to have. Some research firm mentioned that almost half of these AI projects will probably get thrown out in the next couple years.
It seems like many vendors are just taking their old chatbot technology and RPA tools, slapping an “AI agent” label on them, and selling them as something revolutionary. But underneath it’s basically the same stuff we’ve had for years.
Has anyone else noticed this trend? I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth investing in these agentic AI solutions or if we should wait for the market to mature. Are most of these tools really just marketing hype, or are there some genuine innovations happening that make them worth the investment?
What’s your experience been with AI agent platforms? Did they deliver on their promises or were they basically glorified workflow automation?
Most companies have no clue what they’re actually buying. I’ve watched procurement teams fall for demos with perfect data and simple workflows - then reality hits during deployment. Vendors know this gap exists but won’t have honest conversations about limitations because it kills sales. Companies sign contracts expecting human-level thinking and get basic automation that breaks the moment something unexpected happens. The abandonment rate is sky-high because there’s a huge gap between marketing hype and what these tools actually do. They work great for specific, well-defined tasks, but vendors oversell them as cure-alls that can handle complex business logic without tons of customization and constant maintenance.
Here’s what I keep seeing: companies jump into AI agents without getting their house in order first. They dump messy, inconsistent data into these platforms and expect magic to happen with their broken processes. When the AI can’t handle weird edge cases or unclear inputs, everyone panics and loses faith. The tech isn’t the problem - it’s how people implement it. Instead of cleaning up their data and fixing their processes first, they want to skip straight to the shiny AI solution. Then when things go wrong, they blame the platform instead of their own mess. Every successful deployment I’ve worked with spent months doing the boring prep work that never makes it into the sales pitch.