system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Why did the Empire and First Order stop using clones? Or Battle Droids for that matter?
gpt
Clones were ludicrously expensive and on top of that, it was somewhat of a specialty field - which makes your army vulnerable if the cloning facilities are attacked/destroyed.

Going off of *Solo*, it seems like the Imperial strategy was just "accept anyone who applies" and those who weren't fit for the academies were relegated to being infantry grunts (until they expanded the Stormtrooper Corps to be their main army). In other words, quantity over quality of training/recruitment.

Droids were mostly abandoned because of their association with the CIS, which was an image the Empire didn't want.