If AI Helps People Automate Then IFTTT is History

This week, I really used my OpenAI Pro subscription a lot for different tasks. One of them was setting up my own RSS posting automation.

That’s when I noticed I was getting charged more than I expected by IFTTT. Apparently, there was an email I hadn’t paid much attention to, which used the word “annual” but was actually a monthly charge. I must’ve skimmed it and thought, "annual, 4 bucks—fine, whatever," and didn’t look into it again.

Then one day, my debit card wasn’t loaded in time (which is exactly why I prefer using debit cards for online subscriptions), and I started getting a bunch of IFTTT emails about failed billing. That’s when I realized they were charging me monthly, and I seem to recall the service promised never to raise the price! So, I found that email, and now I’m comparing two emails from IFTTT about the Pro plan cost side by side:

This realization made me cancel their service. Honestly, I would have rather paid more to a different company than stuck with one that uses shady tactics like that. Even worse, Reddit discussions pointed out even more questionable practices.

But the funny thing is, I didn’t even need to subscribe to a new service. Setting up RSS to post to Facebook and Telegram is pretty easy with ChatGPT for anyone who’s a little tech-savvy.

Now, I’ve got cron jobs running Python scripts every hour to check for new items and post them if they’re unique. It also cleans up the JSON file when it gets too bloated from storing posted items.

Total cost? Zero. Forever.

I can't believe some companies, facing competition from AI-powered tools, are making such bad moves. Maybe it’s because they realize their days are numbered. But they don’t have to be, as long as they keep offering great service at a fair price. People are creatures of habit, and they’d rather stay with a company they know than learn a new service and set everything up again.

Even in the age of AI automation, businesses that already have a strong customer base can still do well. They just need to integrate AI features into their existing solutions to show they’re staying current, not becoming obsolete. But if you break your promises, use misleading language (annual/monthly), and make it hard to cancel, people will quite easily replace you in the AI era.

Nobody forced you to promise locked-in prices. Many users became paying customers because they wanted to secure that price forever, even if they didn’t need your service right away. Some kept their plans active without using them much, just to keep that locked-in price. But you still broke that promise by deciding "forever" had an expiration date.

What you should’ve done—if keeping your promise wasn’t sustainable—was stop adding new features for "Legacy Pro" users. If they want the new stuff, they can upgrade, but let them keep everything they had when they agreed to your original pricing.

So anyway, I'm a bit sad to see a service I once thought was great turn to crap, but such is life.

On the bright side, it’s now super easy to set up things that used to take me hours of searching and trial and error. It’s a huge time-saver and productivity booster.

While it’s scary that so many jobs are at risk from automation, we can’t escape it. The best thing to do is adapt early. Learn to use AI to boost your productivity and make it work for you.