AI Automation Startup Relay Is Shutting Down; Its Founder Is Going Back to Google to Lead Chrome

AI Automation Startup Relay Is Shutting Down; Its Founder Is Going Back to Google to Lead Chrome

Imagine spending years building an AI startup designed to help people automate their work, only to eventually shut it down and take what you learned straight back to Google.

That is exactly what is happening with Relay.app.

The AI-powered workflow automation startup is shutting down, while its founder and CEO, Jacob Bank, is returning to Google as Vice President of Product for Chrome. Several members of the Relay team are also reportedly joining Google’s Chrome organization. 

And this is not just another startup closure.

It could be a sign of where AI-powered work is heading next.

Relay Wanted to Be the AI Version of Zapier

Founded in 2021, Relay.app was built around a simple idea: let AI handle repetitive work across the apps businesses already use.

Instead of manually moving information between tools, writing documents, managing tasks, or coordinating workflows, users could build automated processes that connected different applications.

Relay later expanded into AI agents, allowing businesses to create systems that could handle repeatable processes, with human approval built into the workflow. 

But the journey is now coming to an end.

Relay's official shutdown notice states that free users lost access on August 15, 2026, while paying customers will retain access until September 14, 2026, when paid accounts and associated data will be permanently deleted. The company has also provided tools for customers to export their workflows and other important data. 

Then Comes the Plot Twist

While Relay is closing, its founder is heading back to the company where his career in this space took a major turn.

Bank previously worked at Google for more than six years after Google acquired his earlier startup, Timeful, in 2015. At Google, he eventually worked on major products including Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Chat.

Now he is returning this time to help shape the future of Chrome.

Bank says Google has ambitious plans for helping people work with AI inside Chrome, describing the browser as a place where users can "collaborate with agents." 

And that phrase is worth paying attention to.

Chrome Could Become More Than a Browser

Google has already been moving aggressively in this direction.

Gemini is now deeply integrated into Chrome, where it can summarize pages, compare information across tabs, and interact with Google services such as Gmail, Calendar, and Maps. Google has also introduced AI-powered workflows called Skills in Chrome, allowing users to save and reuse AI tasks with a single click.

So Bank is not walking into an empty room.

He is joining a much larger push to turn the browser from something you use into something that can increasingly work alongside you.

And that may explain why Relay's story is particularly interesting.

The company did not simply build another chatbot. It spent years experimenting with something much bigger: AI that can actually perform work across different tools.

Now, some of that experience is moving into one of the world's most widely used browsers.

The Bigger AI Story

Relay's shutdown is a reminder that building a good AI product is not enough.

The AI market is moving incredibly quickly, and features that once required a dedicated startup can eventually become part of much larger platforms.

But there is another side to this story.

The people building these startups are learning how AI agents should work, where they fail, when humans need to stay involved, and how AI can actually save people time.

Those lessons are becoming extremely valuable.

So while Relay.app may be disappearing, its ideas may not be.

They could soon show up in a browser used by millions of people every day.

And this time, the AI may not just answer your questions. It may actually help get the work done.