Relay Winds Down as Founder Jacob Bank Returns to Google to Lead Chrome Product
AI workflow automation startup Relay.app is shutting down, bringing an end to a company that set out to challenge established automation platforms such as Zapier. At the same time, founder and CEO Jacob Bank and several Relay employees are moving to Google, where Bank will take on a senior role within the Chrome organization.
The development comes as Google continues to build artificial intelligence more deeply into Chrome, potentially giving Bank and his former Relay colleagues an opportunity to apply their experience in AI-driven productivity and workflow automation on a significantly larger scale.
Relay Begins Its Final Wind-Down
Relay was founded in 2021 after Bank left Google, with the company developing a workflow automation platform designed to reduce repetitive business tasks. Its technology combined automation with AI capabilities, while also allowing people to intervene in workflows where human judgment was still required.
The company’s shutdown process was first announced in July.
According to Relay’s official closure notice, free users were given access until August 15, 2026, while paying customers can continue using the service until September 14, 2026.
Free accounts and their associated data were scheduled for deletion after the August deadline. Paying customers have a longer 60-day transition period, during which Relay is allowing them to continue running their existing workflows and export important information.
Relay has also provided customers with tools to export workflows, sequences and MCP servers as JSON files and AI prompts, alongside run histories and table data.
Jacob Bank Returns to Google
Relay’s closure coincides with another major career move for its founder.
Bank is rejoining Google as VP of Product for Google Chrome, with responsibility for Chrome’s product and developer relations teams. His LinkedIn profile now identifies him as VP of Product for Google Chrome, while reports surrounding the appointment indicate that several other Relay employees are also joining the browser team.
For Bank, the appointment represents a return to a company where he previously spent a little over six years.
Explaining the move, Bank said:
“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,” said Bank in a post on X. “And joining the Chrome team is an ideal opportunity to bring those experiences to many, many more people.”
He also suggested that significant AI developments are ahead for the browser:
“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,” he added.
Bank has described Chrome as “a perfect place to collaborate with agents.”
From Timeful to Google and Relay
Bank’s relationship with Google stretches back more than a decade.
His previous startup, Timeful, developed technology focused on intelligent scheduling and time management. Google acquired the company in 2015, after which Bank joined the technology giant.
During his first period at Google, he worked across several major productivity products. His responsibilities included product leadership for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Chat, as well as work connected with Google Workspace.
Bank eventually left Google in July 2021 to establish Relay.
The new company initially positioned itself at the intersection of workflow automation and collaborative project management. By 2023, Relay had evolved into what Bank described as a full workflow automation platform and a potential alternative to Zapier.
Relay Combined Automation With Human Oversight
Relay’s platform was designed to help companies automate repetitive processes across their existing applications.
Businesses could use the software for activities including document preparation, content-related tasks, project management processes and recurring administrative workflows.
One of Relay’s distinguishing ideas was combining AI automation with human involvement. Instead of requiring every workflow to be completely autonomous, users could introduce approval stages where a person checked information, supplied missing details or approved an action before it continued.
That approach became increasingly relevant as generative AI began being incorporated into business software, allowing automation platforms to move beyond simple rule-based triggers and into areas such as summarisation, classification, information extraction and content creation.
Chrome Is Becoming an AI Productivity Platform
Bank’s arrival comes at a significant point in Chrome’s development.
Google has already begun transforming Chrome from a conventional browser into a platform with increasingly sophisticated AI capabilities.
In September 2025, Google announced a major expansion of AI functionality within Chrome, including Gemini integration across webpages and multiple browser tabs. Google also outlined agentic browsing technology capable of carrying out tasks on websites on a user’s behalf.
Gemini in Chrome can work with information across multiple open tabs, help users understand webpage content and interact with other Google products. Google has also been developing agentic capabilities designed to handle repetitive online activities while leaving users with the ability to stop the process.
These capabilities closely overlap with the wider concept behind workflow automation: using software and AI to complete multi-step tasks instead of requiring people to manually carry out every individual action.
That makes Bank’s background in Relay, Timeful and Google’s productivity applications particularly relevant as Chrome evolves further toward AI-assisted and agent-driven computing.
Gemini Passes the 1 Billion User Mark
Google’s broader push into AI is also reaching an increasingly large audience.
On August 11, 2026, Google announced that the Gemini app had surpassed 1 billion monthly users, describing it as the fastest-growing product in the company’s history.
That milestone provides Google with an enormous existing audience as it expands Gemini technology into products such as Chrome and other parts of its ecosystem.
The browser could consequently become one of Google’s most important locations for turning AI from a question-and-answer tool into technology capable of carrying out practical digital tasks.
Relay’s Closure Marks a New Chapter for Its Team
Relay’s shutdown ends the company’s effort to establish itself as an independent competitor in the rapidly evolving workflow automation sector, but the expertise developed by its team may now influence a product with far greater reach.
Bank’s return to Google also reconnects several stages of his career: intelligent productivity through Timeful, Google’s major workplace applications, AI workflow automation through Relay and, now, the development of AI-powered experiences inside Chrome.
Exactly how Relay’s former employees will contribute to Google’s Chrome roadmap remains to be seen. However, Bank’s comments make it clear that AI-driven productivity and agents will form an important part of his work.
For Google, bringing experienced workflow automation talent into Chrome comes as the browser itself is increasingly becoming a platform where AI can not only provide information, but potentially take action.
Online References
- Relay.app — Official shutdown announcement and customer transition details.
- Jacob Bank / X — Announcement of his return to Google and plans for AI in Chrome.
- Jacob Bank / LinkedIn — Current role as VP of Product, Google Chrome.
- Google — Chrome’s Gemini integration and agentic browsing plans.
- Google — Gemini surpassing 1 billion monthly users.
- TechCrunch — Relay’s history, development and Bank’s previous Google roles.
- TechCrunch — Reporting on Relay’s closure and staff joining Google’s Chrome team.
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