AI Automation Startup Relay Shuts Down, CEO Joins Google's Chrome Team

Relay, the AI-powered workflow automation startup that aimed to become the next Zapier, is shutting down. Founder and CEO Jacob Bank announced Monday that paying customers will lose access on September 14, following the August 15 cutoff for free users. The closure was first announced in July, and now the team is scattering — with Bank and some staff heading to Google's Chrome division.

Bank, who previously spent over six years at Google, will rejoin as VP of Product for Google Chrome, leading product and developer relations. In a post on X, he framed the move as a natural continuation of his career-long focus: "building tools that help people get more done with AI, without sacrificing their personal creativity or insights." He also hinted at ambitious plans, calling Chrome "a perfect place to collaborate with agents."

Relay's trajectory mirrors Bank's earlier startup, Timeful, which was acquired by Google in 2015. Timeful's scheduling tech influenced Google Calendar, and Bank went on to lead products like Gmail and Google Calendar before leaving to found Relay in 2021. Relay offered similar productivity boosts — automating repetitive tasks like document drafting and copyediting for businesses.

The shutdown arrives as Google aggressively integrates AI into its ecosystem. Gemini now sits inside search, and more recently, it's been added to Chrome as an optional in-browser assistant. Bank's move suggests deeper agentic integration is on the horizon, a direction that could significantly alter how developers and users interact with the browser.

For developers, the loss of Relay is a reminder of the volatility in the AI automation space, but the talent drain to Google signals that the browser is becoming a battleground for agentic AI. As Chrome evolves, expect more AI-driven features that blur the line between automation and user intent — and that could have ripple effects for how we build and use web tools.