Builder.ai raised about $445m for an AI assistant that turned out to front a great deal of human labour, and the collapse that followed is the clearest cautionary tale of AI-washing yet. This edition reads it as a buyer's field guide rather than a fraud story. You will leave with three diligence questions that price any AI claim, and a way to spot the same overclaim in your own pilots.
📍 In brief
Builder.ai sold automation and paid for labour, and the gap surfaced in its accounts before it surfaced in its product. Before you sign an AI contract or graduate a pilot, get written answers to three questions. Where are the humans, what does it do on your work, and do the economics match the claim?