Intelligent workflow automation has always been a competitive market, and Relay jumped into the ring swinging back in 2021.
The startup was born with a bold pitch: become the new benchmark in automation powered by artificial intelligence, going head-to-head with giants like Zapier.
But this year the company officially announced it was shutting down operations, with the initial announcement coming in July.
Access for paying customers will be turned off on September 14, and free users already lost access as of August 15.
The end of Relay, however, does not mean the end of the idea that drove it.
The mission to transform the way people work with AI is far from over — it just changed addresses.
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And the new address is one of the most widely used browsers on the planet: Google Chrome. 🚀
What Relay was and why it mattered
Relay was not just another run-of-the-mill automation tool. Since its launch in 2021, the platform positioned itself with a clear goal of becoming the next Zapier, offering users productivity improvements through workflow automation. The idea was to let companies simplify repetitive tasks like drafting documents, reviewing text, and various project management activities. With that, Relay carved out a meaningful spot among productivity teams, startups, and operations groups that needed real flexibility in their workflows.
As artificial intelligence became more prominent in the work tools market, Relay started incorporating AI features to make automation smarter and more contextual. The platform was built around the promise of helping people do more with AI without sacrificing the creativity and personal insights of each user. It was a level of sophistication that caught attention, especially for people dealing with repetitive processes who needed to scale without losing quality.
The pitch resonated in the market and the startup managed to attract an engaged user base, along with notable investment in the tech sector. But building a platform of that scale comes with a high operational cost, and the automation market is dominated by players with much more capital and infrastructure. Staying competitive in that landscape demands rapid growth and constant fundraising — and that is exactly where the Relay team made a tough but strategic call.
From startup founder to VP of Product for Chrome
At the helm of Relay was Jacob Bank, the company’s founder and CEO, who shared the official shutdown announcement. And here is where the story takes an interesting turn: this is not the first time Bank has crossed paths with Google. He had already spent just over six years inside the search giant, and now he is back in a prominent role.
Bank revealed that he is rejoining Google as VP of Product for Google Chrome, leading the browser’s product and developer relations teams, according to his own LinkedIn profile. His history with Google goes back to 2015, when his previous startup, a scheduling app called Timeful, was acquired by the company. Inside Google, he worked across several important areas, including as product lead for Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Chat, before leaving to start Relay.
In his own words, posted on the social platform X, his entire career has been dedicated to one thing: building tools that help people do more with AI without giving up creativity and personal ideas. Bank described joining the Chrome team as an ideal opportunity to bring those experiences to far more people. He also hinted that there are ambitious plans to help users work with AI inside Chrome, promising news soon. 🤖
The pivot: from platform to the heart of Chrome
When Relay announced the shutdown of its main platform, the news triggered a wave of questions from users: what happens now? The answer came shortly after, and it was surprising. Instead of simply closing up shop, part of the team, including the chief executive himself, decided to redirect all of their energy and learnings into a new chapter inside Google Chrome. The choice makes sense when you stop to think about it: Chrome is one of the most used browsers in the world and is present in virtually every digital work routine on the planet.
Bank went so far as to describe Chrome as the perfect place to collaborate with AI agents. Exactly how these artificial intelligence features will be integrated into the browser is still an open question, but the direction is clear. The philosophy that always guided Relay now takes on a much more accessible form, integrated into everyday life. Instead of asking users to access a separate platform to set up automations, the idea is for AI and automation to be available directly in the environment where work already happens.
This shift in model is also smart from a distribution standpoint. Bringing automation inside the browser has a much more direct adoption path than a standalone platform. For the Relay team, which already had a deep understanding of automation users’ needs, this new format could be exactly the right vehicle to scale the mission that always guided the project — transforming the way people work with artificial intelligence. 💡
Chrome and the wave of AI integration at Google
This move is not happening in a vacuum. It follows a consistent path of integrating artificial intelligence into the user experience across Google products. The arrival of Gemini in search, for example, profoundly changed the face of Google and, in practice, shook up a significant chunk of the internet, including the world of SEO and content production.
Gemini has also already been integrated into Google Chrome itself, where it works as an optional assistant inside the browser with more autonomous browsing capabilities. And the numbers show that users are responding well to this move: Google recently reported that Gemini surpassed the 1 billion user mark. In this landscape, the arrival of Bank and part of the Relay team reinforces the company’s heavy bet on turning Chrome into an increasingly intelligent and productive environment.
What this means for people who rely on automation at work
For those who depend on automation tools in their daily routine, the Relay story carries an important lesson about how the productivity market powered by AI is evolving. The trend is no longer about standalone platforms that require complex setup and lengthy onboarding. What is gaining traction are solutions that fit naturally into existing workflows without asking users to overhaul their entire routine. Integrating AI directly into Google Chrome is a perfect example of this movement: the intelligence goes to where the work happens, not the other way around.
Another point worth highlighting is the resilience of teams building AI products. The decision to shut down a platform and migrate to a new format is not a defeat — it is a strategic read of the market. Relay accumulated data, feedback, and a real understanding of user behavior over years of operation. All of that learning does not vanish when a platform closes — it goes straight into the next challenge. And in this case, the next challenge has the potential to reach an exponentially larger audience, precisely because it lives inside one of the browsers that dominate the global market.
For users who lost access to the original platform, whether in August for free accounts or September for paid accounts, this transition represents a natural continuation of the experience. The promise stays the same: less time spent on repetitive tasks, more focus on what truly matters, and artificial intelligence as a real ally in building a more efficient and less stressful work routine. The productivity that Relay always promised now gets the chance to live inside your browser, with no barriers and no complications. All that is left is to keep an eye out for the updates Bank promised to share soon. 🚀
