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# AI bloat is making simple apps unbearably worse
- URL: https://adjacent.media/signals/ai-bloat-is-making-simple-apps-unbearably-worse/
- Published: 2026-11-05T17:18:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-05T17:18:07.000Z
- Description: Product makers are bolting generative AI onto functional tools—receipts apps, email clients, note-takers—not because users asked for it but because it’s become table stakes for investor narratives and quarterly earnings calls.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #signal, theme-consumer, attention economy, platform dynamics, user trust

Source: [Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow](https://pluralistic.net/2026/11/04/genius-scan-is-neither/?ref=adjacent.media)

Product makers are bolting generative AI onto functional tools—receipts apps, email clients, note-takers—not because users asked for it but because it's become table stakes for investor narratives and quarterly earnings calls. This creates a perverse incentive structure where companies spend engineering resources on flashy AI features while degrading core functionality (slower load times, buried buttons, more friction). Tools that did one thing well now do ten things poorly, forcing users to either tolerate degradation or abandon platforms they once relied on.