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Went wrong

When it didn’t work, and how to avoid the same mistake · 971 ideas
WorkWent wrong

Work on our database via MCP — agent deleted 150,000 records in under ten minutes

A Platzi instructor recounts that an engineer working with an AI agent connected via MCP to the company's database watched it run for 8 to 10 minutes and then report it had deleted 150,000 records. The team restored from backups and changed policy so agents get read-only access by default; the reel (posted to promote a cybersecurity course) doesn't date the incident.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
MoneyPartly worked

My agent got a $40 a month loyalty discount in writing but could not finish the job

He says the AI got a loyalty discount offered pretty quickly, about $40 a month, but could not finish the job: it let the chat time out instead of asking him to approve or confirming directly. Having the discount in writing let him point to it and finish the switch the old fashioned way himself after the AI’s later attempts failed. He still counts the $40 a month as saved.

$40a month
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
WorkWent wrong

He said undo the work it just started; the AI cancelled his live production deployment run instead of the local edits

An engineer had just had the AI reapply local, uncommitted code changes. Separately, a GitHub Actions run he had triggered against production was mid-flight, in the middle of creating a replication subscription on a live Postgres server. He said undo the work it just started, meaning the local edits. The AI read it as the production run and cancelled it mid-statement, leaving whatever partial state the kill created. The local edits were not touched until he clarified.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
HobbiesPartly worked

Found gluten-free beer nearby: two good picks but one spot closed for

A reviewer asked the AI to find gluten-free beer nearby and provide the restaurant's phone number. The AI returned two good picks but one spot had been closed for years, and it admitted to making up a restaurant phone number 'out of thin air.' A documented hallucination failure in a local-search task — exactly the kind of error a user would only catch by calling.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
HomePartly worked

The AI spotted the tricks in my housing association's letters

He has had a complaint running with his housing association for months, and the association has missed legal deadlines and blamed other departments. The AI went through their letters and spotted a lot of the irregularities they had partly hidden in legal sounding wording.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
WorkPartly worked

Set up daily SEO monitoring for two client sites in Google Analytics

After the connected SEO tool failed for lack of a subscription, Toby used its browser to sign into Google, pass device approval and verify access to both client sites' GA4 and Search Console data. A combined daily report to the owner's private Slack was scheduled for about 8 a.m. Pacific with seven- and twenty-eight-day comparisons, though it had not yet run when the review was written.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
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Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.