AI automation startup Relay shuts down as staff joins Google Chrome team

Relay, an 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 its top executive — are joining Google’s Chrome team. Jacob Bank, Relay’s founder and CEO, shared a company announcement Monday revealing the app will shut down access for paying customers on September 14; free customers already lost access as of August 15. The app’s closure was initially announced in July.

Bank, who previously spent a little over six years at Google, revealed he would rejoin the tech giant as VP of Product for Google Chrome, where he’ll lead the product and developer relations teams for Chrome, according to his LinkedIn. “I’ve spent my whole career doing one thing: building tools that help people get more done with AI, without sacrificing their personal creativity or insights,” Bank said in a post on X. “And joining the Chrome team is an ideal opportunity to bring those experiences to many, many more people.” He added: “We have some really ambitious plans to help you work with AI in Chrome to get things done, and I’ll have more to share soon.”

Bank originally joined Google in 2015 after his previous startup, a scheduling app called Timeful, was acquired by the search giant. At Google, he worked in several areas — including as product lead for Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Chat — before eventually leaving to launch Relay. Similar to Timeful, Relay offered users productivity upgrades via workflow automation, letting businesses streamline repetitive tasks like document drafting, copyediting, and 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 remains an open question, though Bank calls Chrome “a perfect place to collaborate with agents.” The move follows a steady path of AI integration into Google’s user experience: Gemini’s integration into search has fundamentally altered Google’s front end, and Gemini has also been integrated into Chrome, where it serves as an optional in-browser assistant. Google recently reported that Gemini had crested 1 billion users.

Why it matters

Relay’s shutdown is a reminder that general-purpose AI workflow tools face steep competition from the AI features platform owners like Google are now folding directly into the browser for free.