Relay, the AI-powered workflow automation tool launched in 2021 with the goal of becoming the new Zapier, is shutting down and some of its staff, including top executives, will join Google’s Chrome team.
Relay founder and CEO Jacob Bank said in a company announcement on Monday that the app will shut down access for paying customers on September 14th. Free customers would have already lost access as of August 15th. The app’s closure was first announced in July.
Bank, who previously spent more than six years at Google, will now rejoin the tech giant as vice president of product for Google Chrome, where he will lead Chrome’s product and developer relations teams, according to LinkedIn.
“I’ve spent my entire career doing one thing: building tools that help people achieve more with AI without sacrificing their personal creativity or insight,” Bank said in a post on X. “And joining the Chrome team is the ideal opportunity to bring that experience to even more people.”
“We have some very ambitious plans to help you power your work with AI in Chrome, and we’ll be sharing more soon.” he added.
Bank joined Google in 2015 after his previous scheduling app, Timeful, was acquired by the search giant. He worked in various capacities at Google, including product lead for Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Chat, before eventually leaving to start Relay.
Similar to Timeful, Relay offers user productivity upgrades through workflow automation, allowing companies to streamline repetitive tasks such as document drafting and copy editing, as well as various project management tasks. TechCrunch reached out to Google and Relay for more information.
How Bank and others plan to further integrate AI into Chrome is still up in the air, but Bank calls Chrome “a great place to collaborate with agents.”
The move follows Google’s steady path of integrating AI into its user experience. Gemini’s integration into search fundamentally changed the front end of Google, not to mention the rest of the internet. Gemini is also integrated into Chrome and acts as an optional in-browser assistant.
Overall, users seem to be responding well to these integrations, as Google recently reported that Gemini has reached 1 billion users.
If you buy through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect editorial independence.
