We spent 3 months building an AI feature our users never asked for. It killed our conversion.

Six months ago, our team got swept up in the AI hype. We decided to spend 12 weeks and a huge chunk of our runway building an automated AI assistant into our SaaS platform. We thought it would be the ultimate selling point and double our signups.

Last month, we launched it. The result?

• Our signup-to-paid conversion rate actually dropped by 15%.

• Only 8% of active users clicked on the AI feature in the first two weeks.

• We got 4 support tickets from users saying the new UI was "cluttered" and confusing.

I finally talked to some of our long-time power users to figure out what went wrong. One of them said it perfectly: "I don't want an AI to write my reports for me. I just want you to fix the CSV export bug that I've reported three times."

I realized we fell into the classic trap: we built what we thought was "cool" and trendy, rather than what our actual users needed to do their jobs better. Now we are trying to figure out if we should hide the feature, remove it entirely, or pivot it into something useful.

For those who have built a feature that flopped: How did you handle the "sunk cost" of a failed launch?

Did you rip it out completely, bury it in settings, or try to pivot it based on user feedback? I'm trying to figure out how to minimize the damage to our core product experience without feeling like the last three months were a total waste.