I have seen this pattern multiple times: (1) tell client completely underdefined problem can be solved automatically, (2) tell developer to implement it, (3) developer spends months trying to automate it, (4) days before the deadline the code does something that would barely count as acceptable, (5) an intern is hired last-minute to solve the problem manually, (6) "we will do it by hand until we have fixed the code".<p>The client will never know (5). The intern will eventually do it manually full-time. The code is of course never fixed.<p>Months later, the developer finally has enough understanding of the problem to find out that it has been a research topic for decades, with no satisfying results so far.