Anyone else exhausted like us by every vendor slapping AI on their product and doubling the price?
Posted by Anxious-Community-65@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 94 comments
Not sure anyone else in the same boat but in the recent months every renewal conversation has had some version of we've added AI capabilities... followed by a price jump, for something which we never asked for or make use of in large scale in the first place.. Half the time it's just a chatbot sitting on top of the same product we've had for years. We've been experimenting with actual AI tools internally for a few months now. Some of it genuinely saves time. But it's also raised questions we didn't expect, what data is going where, whether output is actually being reviewed or just passed along, whether we're building good habits or just fast ones which could cost us later on..
Curious where others have landed. Are you finding value in the AI additions your vendors are pushing, or does it mostly feel like paying more for a feature nobody asked for?
Whitestrake@reddit
Because the only way to make any real money on AI is to sell it to some other sucker.
themastermatt@reddit
Ive been noticing some features moving from included to AI paywalled. Meraki is one such. There used to be a setting to let the controller dynamically adjust radio power and other settings. This was just part of the platform. Now its behind some AI license.
CKtravel@reddit
I'm sorry but you've already messed up when you've purchased Meraki equipment :P I wouldn't touch those things with a 10-foot pole even.
jlmawp@reddit
Curious why you think this. I have had great experiences across multiple companies/positions with large Meraki deployments.
CKtravel@reddit
Oh, we had those things at my previous job too and I think that they're a huge risk. There are a million and one ways they can lose Internet access and when that happens they basically become unconfigurable black boxes. Not something you'd want in a mission-critical complex environment.
agoia@reddit
At least it's not a Fortinet product.
CKtravel@reddit
True, I can't believe that companies are still buying that stuff...
DanglingDinkleberry@reddit
and yet thousands of large businesses are running it in mission-critical production environments. Hmm.
CKtravel@reddit
Yeah bevause sustem architects at most companies suck big time and push whatever product the last sales rep that bribed them sells.
jlmawp@reddit
I see.
pdp10@reddit
Subscription-gated, cloud orchestrated functionality, obviously.
It's one thing to have a subscription-gated cloud tax application, but another one for your LAN/WLAN not to work if you stop paying your fees.
tankerkiller125real@reddit
"Due to compliance reasons we cannot use unmonitored, uncontrolled AI products. Please disable this crap on our account, and price appropriately or we will find a different vendor that doesn't shove it down our throat"
agoia@reddit
Had to do that with an RMM recently. The "virtual technician" worked by sending screenshots of the target pc off for AI processing. Meaning any financial or healthcare business that uses it is chronically violating privacy laws because those screenshots will eventually be sending off some patient or client data to God knows where.
Sales guy seemed like it was the first time that concern was ever brought up to them.
Ferretau@reddit
Sounds like it may have been the big rmm vendor that starts with K that would pull a stunt like that.
pdp10@reddit
That's always expected. The usual line is to the effect that none of their other customers have ever raised it as a concern.
Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. Maybe that particular salesperson hasn't had it come up. But that's not important; you need to not be swayed by the implication that you're asking for something weird and unusual.
Iconically_Lost@reddit
So were you able to disable copilot in full? or did you 100% in full cut all ties with Microslop?
barnopss@reddit
I work in an MS shop.
I recently migrated from Win11 enterprise to Ubuntu and its been a godsend.
All my work tools still run, and performance has increased.
I hate myself for waiting this long.
cupon_taken@reddit
Can you tell how many workstations?
barnopss@reddit
I migrated myself, was just sharing that if you're fed up with MSlop then possibly you can (personally) migrate to something less stressful to work on while you support others or work on systems.
cupon_taken@reddit
How many workstations
TriumphRid3r@reddit
Sounds like 1.
Iwannabesomebody@reddit
Yes, they are the only company that does this. They won the war.
braytag@reddit
isn't
Or you have much better vendor that I do. Just got this this morning:
AI is coming to [product]: It's a game changer. We’re embedding AI directly into [product] to help streamline everyday finance work. Think natural-language questions, faster insights, less manual effort, and earlier issue detection. This is the kind of innovation that will free your team to focus on strategy and stewardship instead of transactions.
eXtc_be@reddit
FYI: I think /u/Iwannabesomebody forgot to add "/s"
Iwannabesomebody@reddit
I thought it was evident, but then again this is reddit.. :D
tankerkiller125real@reddit
You know what Copilot has that 99% of these AI products from vendors don't have? Proper auditing, controls, management, etc.
As the admin I can see every single chat any user ever had with Copilot, what tools were used, what the tools returned, etc. and blocking it's ability to do something is fairly straightforward.
I still fucking hate Copilot with a passion, but it is something that we can actual audit, control, etc.
DheeradjS@reddit
Considering they are renaming Office to Copilot, no.
Ron-Swanson-Mustache@reddit
Yeah, the process involves uninstalling it and using a different OS. Every day that looks like a better option.
Centimane@reddit
Monkey paw curls
tankerkiller125real@reddit
Whoops, look like they weren't that important vendor after all. Migrating wasn't too painful...
(Having an entire engineering division who's entire 30-year history has been integrating data between systems, and moving data around between vendors makes migrating from a shitty vendor to a new one surprisingly easy)
worjd@reddit
This is such a joke response I do not know how it is upvoted at all
QuesoMeHungry@reddit
My previous company did this and it worked. Security would not approve any software if it had baked in AI. It had to be completely disabled.
evenmore2@reddit
I saw an AI sticker slapped on a washing machine the other day.
TroubledGeorge@reddit
I sadly happen to own a Samsung washing machine with an AI icon that lights up sometimes.
DanglingDinkleberry@reddit
Is it not universally known yet that Samsung appliances are garbage? Why do people keep buying them. If there's anything AI on a washing machine, I'm not buying it.
BrokenByEpicor@reddit
Is it? I have a washer and dryer I bought 8 years ago that still run like the day I bought them. Maybe it varies by model. I just know my wife did some research before we made the purchase and that's what she came up with. She's generally good at that sort of thing.
tesseract4@reddit
Same here. The things have way more settings than I ever use, but they have seemingly worked fine in the 7 or so years I've had them. In fact, I've regretted not getting the Bluetooth-enabled model in order to see how much time is left without going downstairs.
I have less than zero interest in any "AI" features, however. Especially in a freaking washing machine. Sheesh.
BrokenByEpicor@reddit
Hard same for sure. I can't imagine what a washing machine would use "AI" for, which leads me to the almost certainly correct conclusion that it's just a marketing gimmick.
agoia@reddit
Probably just a rebranding of the logic that washers use to balance out the spin cycle.
BrokenByEpicor@reddit
Funny that's basically exactly what I figured. Pretty soon we're going to have cars advertised as "AI powered" based on all the computer systems in them that monitor and make small adjustments to the engine as it's running.
agoia@reddit
My car tells me the range left on the gas tank, IT MUST BE AI!!!
BrokenByEpicor@reddit
My car wants me to check the engine? Oh but I need a subscription to grok for Chevrolet in order to review the information.
quatch@reddit
it just reorders the cycles in the selection menu to "by frequency of use"
agoia@reddit
The AI learns you as you use it, to make your life easier!*
^*All ^information ^captured ^from ^cameras, ^microphones, ^and ^telemetry ^sensors ^on ^the ^device ^may ^be ^shared ^with ^our ^partners. ^See ^our ^privacy ^policy ^to ^learn ^more.
quatch@reddit
in practice it's more: anytime you dont want the most used cycle you have to scroll through slowly as they're effectively randomized.
naturally there is an app, and wifi, but I have not downloaded that, and disabled the wifi. It occasionally adds an interrupt screen to remind me of the joys I could be having.
agoia@reddit
Im gonna give my "dumb" GEs an appreciative pat when I get back to the house for not having nag screens about a wifi connection.
tesseract4@reddit
I assume that virtually everything is a marketing gimmick until proven otherwise.
BrokenByEpicor@reddit
I mean you could go through your life in a worse way. Be skeptical about everything, just not so skeptical you don't believe anything. Often times it just takes a quick spot-check to detect bullshit.
evenmore2@reddit
I bet the fucker will still shrink the shit out of a pair of jeans in a jiffy, right?
Anxious-Community-65@reddit (OP)
In us recently a show company became ai and its stock just shot up.. don't know why people can't see through it there
itsbushy@reddit
The best part is when the sales guy overplays their hand to make a sale and you have to deal with the "great AI technology" they proposed to your boss with no input from the team.
pdp10@reddit
The boss now expects 2x productivity. Get right on that.
Kumorigoe@reddit
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ProllyJustAnotherBot@reddit
The quickest way to get me to click "Not Interested" or delete an email or w/e is to write AI on it. Already twice today and it's only noon. . .
1z1z2x2x3c3c4v4v@reddit
Prices go up for any excuse possible. I don't worry about it. I just plan for it.
Been managing IT for 20 years... I always budget for a 5-10% price increase EVERY year, so increases are not a surprise to my Senior leadership or me.
CeC-P@reddit
A.I. = Actually, I need that money we wasted on this product upgrade back
Ferretau@reddit
I consider it to be marketing snake oil now, there are places where I see it could be useful however in the majority it's just another way to extract money from the client.
tesseract4@reddit
I mean, that's just capitalism.
Khue@reddit
I'm exhausted by getting a new request every week about an additional "AI" feature and having to research how to secure it properly before people start full sending shit ton of internal IP into them.
Anxious-Community-65@reddit (OP)
In another case with us, earlier there were cases of our techs uploading vast amount of data thaat shouldn't be into public ai sites.. only then some of our vendors started coming up with enterprise modes and said our data won't be used for training.. though Im still not sure how this works or if it's just a show talk..
tesseract4@reddit
Even if it's not used for training, it's still being taken off to god knows where for the LLM to read it. With the advent of vibes coding for this kind of shit, it's not long before no one will be able to tell you where your data is going, because no one will know.
Khue@reddit
Whenever I ask how vendors isolate our data from training other's models, I never get a satisfying answer and I am afraid that at some point, there's going to be a security disclosure that will say something to the effect of "we have become aware of a situation where some training data has been leaked into other tenants. we are currently investigating this issue."
gurilagarden@reddit
It's because your vendors actually know how to turn a profit by embracing new technology and figuring out how to monetize it, something your business should probably learn to emulate. This sub reminds me of blackberry users when the iphone was first introduced. It was the same shit. It always is. It's just embarrassing that the industry that was supposed to be filled by technology enthusiasts devolved into the most conservative bunch of "we have tech at home" greybeards. I remember being told in 1996 that nobody needed a pentium 2 processor because nobody could type fast enough to require that much processing power. You guys all sound exactly like that.
twolfhawk@reddit
I am sick and tired of being forced to learn and use AI shit. If it's automation that's one thing, but don't call it AI
M4niac81@reddit
This is the same irritation as when online services that we had been using for years re-branded themselves as "cloud" services when the term became popular.
Ron-Swanson-Mustache@reddit
Silos, hyper-convergence, blockchain, fintech, you own your data...
Anxious-Community-65@reddit (OP)
This.. I have seen several features in our tool which are just basic automation blocks which we even used to have earlier also and they have been branding it as ai
twolfhawk@reddit
Its like SYNERGY! middle management bullshit will be the downfall of tech
redyellowblue5031@reddit
That’s what drives me nuts. It’s like automating, but if you were to assign a success percentage between 0 and 80%.
I can’t trust that!
_haha_oh_wow_@reddit
Yes, I hate this AI slop fueled dumpster fire of a nightmare. Greedy idiots are ruining everything and it's totally insane!
derango@reddit
Hi Market Research! No thank you!
Anxious-Community-65@reddit (OP)
lol mate, what :)
OurManInHavana@reddit
There have been a lot of corporate accounts lately: that hide their posts/comments so users are less likely to call them on their engagement farming.
Old-Flight8617@reddit
You all know you can look up posts and comments, right?
Their activity is hidden on their profile, but no if you look it up.
OurManInHavana@reddit
We all know the average user won't do anything more than click on an account to see their /u page... as a quick check of what they've been up to.
And we know, that you know, that we know that 😄
derango@reddit
Dude, you edited your post to sound less like a marketing shill because you got called out on it.
No specifics? Check. Asking "where others have landed" check. Asking about what "value" is being provided by agents. Also check.
Old-Flight8617@reddit
If I recall, OP is part of an MSP and is on the other side of the "pond".
cwm13@reddit
I, for one, am looking forward to the AI update for my Allbirds. Going to breathe new life into my 2 year old pair, I'm sure of it.
JohnGillnitz@reddit
We have a document management system that we have been using for 15 years. It's expensive, but manageable on prem. When they came out with a cloud product, we resisted because it added another 0 to the cost for no real benefit. Now they are throwing in AI (that we don't want) and forcing users to the cloud.
It's beyond frustrating. We can't even really move to another product because they are all doing it. They can't fix a bug that has been known about and nagging us for five years, but they can raise the price by a magnitude just by making it buzz word compliant. Sadly, upper management just seems to be shrugging and paying it because everything else is going the same way.
catwiesel@reddit
no you are not alone
Medium-Jellyfish9441@reddit
And then the chat box is fucking retarded like it only can answer basic question that someone gave the answers to and you can only do a follow along and you dont need to use it because its so basic but when an actual problem occurs it doesnt have the answer programed into it and because they have the ai now its impossible to get on the phone with a real person and if you do they only refer you to the same programed answer in the ai
Rex_Bossman@reddit
And we've had those stupid chat bots for many, many years already. They just call it "AI" now.
Anxious-Community-65@reddit (OP)
Exactly.. ours in serviccedesk has been only good in correcting grammar sentence that too in basic.. don't know why we need it in first place and why they release it outside if it's half done
the_painmonster@reddit
I would assume that the new cost of hardware is a major factor in price increases across the board right now, though that's going to be difficult to separate from everyone jumping on the AI train too.
Anxious-Community-65@reddit (OP)
We have seen this in the past few months, our client invoices have been going up in endpoints, rams and memories here in uk
AntRevolutionary925@reddit
And when the price of ai skyrockets because investors don’t want to subsidize it anymore, their costs will go up so they’ll quietly remove all of features and keep the price just as high.
homing-duck@reddit
I don’t think it is a when. I think it is happening now. Huge pricing change coming through for GitHub copilot.
Opus seems to be getting dumber, I’m assuming they are now using less resources for each request.
natflingdull@reddit
Right there with you. Honestly Im exhausted with AI in general and I do not see the price as reasonable at all for what it does, and the price keeps going up. Its made our job market extremely uncertain on top of it, directly lowering my quality of life and making the future look bleak.
To your point internally and externally Im beyond tired of resources being poured into AI related projects, especially at the cost of degrading customer service and reducing internal headcount with very little in productivity gains. Admins and Devs weren’t constrained before by code being too time sensitive to produce: maybe thats what your cheap offshore MSPs were telling you. We’re often constrained by same things that plague every organization: red tape and ignorance of tech.
It doesn’t matter if Claude takes a few minutes to spit out the powershell script it may take me 30-60 minutes to create if Im still waiting a week for CAB to approve it.
Medium-Jellyfish9441@reddit
Yup love that answer literally makes it pointless and i heard something about google investing 40bil in claude not sure if its true but
CKtravel@reddit
Yeah, it's insanely creepy and keeps tempting me to suggest alternatives. It literally makes the vendor look scummy and gives me an itch to ditch them completely if possible, but alas I'm not in a position to do so.
BadSausageFactory@reddit
AI + ??? = profit
our company has been taken over by underwear gnomes
mcdade@reddit
It’s now the new AI tax, vendors realized no one wants to pay extra for it so they put it on the accounts and jack up the price.
Anxious-Community-65@reddit (OP)
Ai tax .. agree..
OneRFeris@reddit
I enjoy interrupting everyone who tells me about their new AI features to tell them that I hate AI. It's bad for our world and our environment and our livelihoods, I wish it didn't exist and I wish you would stop talking about it.