Relay shuts down as CEO Jacob Bank joins Google Chrome team

Relay, the AI-powered workflow automation startup founded in 2021 to challenge Zapier, is officially shutting down. Founder and CEO Jacob Bank announced Monday that paying customers will lose access on September 14, while free users already lost access on August 15. The closure was initially disclosed in July. Bank, who spent over six years at Google before launching Relay, is rejoining the tech giant as VP of Product for Google Chrome, where he will lead product and developer relations teams. In a post on X, Bank framed the move as an opportunity to bring his AI productivity tools to a much larger audience, hinting at "ambitious plans" for AI in Chrome. He called Chrome "a perfect place to collaborate with agents."

Bank's history at Google includes founding the scheduling app Timeful, which was acquired in 2015, and later serving as product lead for Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Chat. Relay similarly focused on productivity via automation, letting businesses streamline document drafting, copyediting, and project management tasks. The shutdown and Bank's role shift align with Google's broader push to embed AI across its products. Gemini has already been integrated into Chrome as an optional in-browser assistant and is now part of Google Search, with the company recently reporting over 1 billion Gemini users. Bank's return to lead Chrome product and developer relations suggests that browser-based AI agents may become a core focus, potentially reshaping how professionals automate work directly within the browser.