Relay, the AI automation tool that had been trying to become the new Zapier since 2021, is shutting down. Free users lost access on 15 August, those who paid lose it on 14 September. Part of the team, including the man at the top, is moving to the Google Chrome team.

Founder and chief executive Jacob Bank announced the news on Monday. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is returning to Google as vice president of product for Chrome, where he will lead the product and developer relations teams. That is not a small role - Chrome is a browser with billions of users.

„My whole career I have been doing the same thing: tools that help people get more work done with AI, without sacrificing their own creativity”, Bank said. He calls Chrome „the perfect place to collaborate with agents” and says he will have more to share soon.

The path is almost circular. Bank joined Google in 2015, after the giant bought his previous startup - the scheduling app Timeful. Inside, he led product for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Chat, then left to found Relay. Eleven years later he returns to the same place, only with a different title, while the company he built in the meantime stays behind him.

What is worth noticing is the shape of this outcome. This is not an acquisition - Google is not taking the company, not taking over the technology, and not continuing to maintain the service for the customers who were paying for it. It is taking the people. The product simply switches off, and the clients who built their workflows into it get one month to find another solution. For Google, that is the cheapest possible way to get an experienced team.

Meanwhile, Google is doing exactly what it says: Gemini is already built into search and into Chrome as an optional assistant, and the company recently announced that Gemini has passed a billion users. The question left hanging is whether automation tools can survive as standalone companies at all, or whether they are just a waiting room until one of the giants decides to build the same thing straight into the browser.