95% of enterprise AI projects are failing
PLUS: Meta's AI pivot and DeepSeek's open source breakthrough
Welcome back, AI’ers!
Here’s What’s On The Menu For Today
The 95% failure rate of enterprise AI
Meta's AI pivot from building to buying
DeepSeek's massive open-source breakthrough
The $25B bet on AI's power infrastructure
AI ON MY MIND
Happy Wednesday,
A new MIT report is sending a reality check across the tech industry. Despite enterprises pouring over $30 billion into generative AI, a staggering 95% of these projects are failing to produce a return on investment.
The disconnect between hype and tangible value highlights a core challenge: most systems cannot adapt to specific business workflows. With so much at stake, how will companies bridge the gap between AI's potential and its practical implementation?
By the way, I've been getting questions about how AI works in practice, so I'm launching a separate newsletter that dives deeper into real business applications and practical advice. [Click here if you're interested].
-Jelani Fuel (Co-founder of Best of AI)
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TODAY’S TOP STORIES

AI's Reality Check: 95% of Enterprise Projects Failing
The Recap:
Enterprises have poured over $30 billion into generative AI, but a recent MIT report reveals a stark reality: 95% of these projects are failing to produce any return on investment. This disconnect between hype and tangible value is sending ripples through the tech industry and Wall Street.
Unpacked:
The primary reason for failure is that most current AI systems don't learn from feedback or adapt to specific business workflows, making them brittle and disconnected from daily operations.
Despite the low success rate, companies have invested over $30 billion into generative AI, with only a tiny 5% of integrated pilots managing to extract millions in value.
The report's findings echo Sam Altman’s recent warning that investors are getting “overexcited” about AI, drawing parallels to the dotcom bubble.
Bottom line:
The challenge isn't the potential of AI, but its practical implementation beyond simple productivity boosts. The next wave of value will be unlocked by systems that can deeply integrate and learn within specific company contexts.

Meta's AI Strategy Shift
The Recap: Meta plans to downsize its Superintelligence Labs while exploring partnerships to license third-party AI models, marking a strategic pivot from building to buying AI capabilities.
Unpacked:
The tech giant's shift suggests that even companies with massive resources are finding it challenging to independently develop frontier AI systems
This pivot echoes Meta's previous all-in approach to the metaverse, but now with AI as the primary focus for future development
The company appears to be embracing a more practical strategy of leveraging external partnerships rather than relying solely on in-house development
Bottom line: Meta's strategic reorganization reflects the evolving landscape of AI development, where building everything in-house may not be the most efficient path forward. This move could encourage other companies to consider similar hybrid approaches, combining internal capabilities with external partnerships.
MY FAVORITE AI TOOLS

Relevance is my favorite AI tool right now (even more so than N8N).
Here’s why:
It’s an AI agent building tool that doesn’t require you to build out the logic using nodes. Instead, you use natural language to build out these agents. But the best thing imo is that you can build AI Agent teams.
Like agents talking to each other completing a goal until its done. It’s nuts. No other tool on the market is doing this. You have to check it out.
(Try it out →Link)
👾 AI Tools We Use Everyday
➡️ N8N for AI Agents - Literally use this everyday to write this newsletter (link)
➡️ Axiom AI - AI Browser automation to scrape anything on the web (link)
➡️ GummySearch - AI Reddit research (link)
Tools are sourced from our database and are not sponsored or affiliated.
MORE STORIES

DeepSeek Releases a Massive Open Source AI
The Recap: Chinese AI firm DeepSeek just unveiled DeepSeek V3.1, a colossal 685B-parameter open-source model designed to challenge the industry's top proprietary systems.
Unpacked:
With 685 billion parameters, this model enters the top tier of AI, rivaling the scale of some of the most powerful closed-source systems available.
It features a generous 128K context window, allowing it to process and analyze extensive documents or complex codebases in a single prompt.
By open-sourcing a model of this magnitude, DeepSeek provides researchers and developers with access to top-tier AI capabilities without the high costs of proprietary APIs.
Bottom line: This release significantly boosts the open-source AI ecosystem, providing a powerful alternative to expensive, closed-off models. It also signals that high-stakes AI development is increasingly a global competition.

The $25B Bet on AI's Power-Hungry Future
The Recap: Vantage Data Centers is building 'Frontier,' a massive $25 billion campus in Texas with 1.4 gigawatts of power dedicated entirely to AI compute.
Unpacked:
This move mirrors comments from OpenAI's Sam Altman, who predicted his company alone would spend trillions of dollars on data center construction in the near future.
The 1.4-gigawatt facility is a direct response to the unprecedented AI demand for the immense computational power needed to train and run large-scale models.
The $25 billion investment signals a long-term, high-stakes bet on AI's future value, even as the market shows jitters about a potential bubble.
Bottom line: The race for AI dominance is increasingly becoming a battle over physical infrastructure and raw power. Access to this level of dedicated compute will be a key differentiator for companies aiming to lead the field.
OTHER NEWS YOU MAY LIKE
Adobe launched Acrobat Studio, a new premium subscription allowing users to analyze various file types and manage documents in an AI-powered workspace using plain English.
Databricks eyes a $100 billion valuation in a new fundraising round, signaling massive investor confidence in the AI data platform space.
Google updated its Translate app with two new Gemini modes and Duolingo-style practice games, integrating advanced AI and gamification into its language tool.
Slingshot AI launched “Ash,” an a16z-backed chatbot marketed as the first public AI-powered therapy service, pushing further into the AI for mental health space.
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AI ON SOCIAL
Chinese AI lab just killed Photoshop with its opensource AI image editing model.
Qwen Image can perfectly edit any image while keeping everything else pixel-perfect.
100% free, local and Opensource.
— Shubham Saboo (@Saboo_Shubham_)
2:27 AM • Aug 19, 2025
Introducing Montra 📸
We raised $5M to make something we wish existed.
A way to make polished, AI-generated videos from start to finish, without ever touching a camera.
Here's how Montra works ↓
— Campbell Baron (@campbelljbaron)
1:01 PM • Aug 20, 2025
AI ART
Can You Spot The AI-Generated Image?Click "Picture One", "Picture Two", "Both" or "None |
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THAT’S IT FOR TODAY
Until next time, stay safe.
-Best of AI Team
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