GM Gives OnStar an AI Makeover

Agentic AI Takes Center Stage

General Motors is adding a personal AI assistant to OnStar as part of a broader makeover of the subscription-based connected car service the U.S. automaker launched 30 years ago.

The OnStar AI Assistant will debut in the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq EV in the coming months, with more GM vehicles to follow, the company said Wednesday at its GM Forward event in New York. At the event, GM also announced a series of other technology initiatives covering software, automated driving, EVs, and its electrical architecture. The company said it will launch a new OnStar mobile app in 2027 that will complement and sync up with its in-car software.

A Unified Mobile App

The new OnStar mobile app will replace the current OnStar Guardian app, which launched in 2020, as well as the vehicle brand apps for Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC.

This tech-centric reboot differs from other attempts to modernize OnStar, and it notably puts agentic AI at the center. GM has updated the safety and roadside assistance service numerous times in its history, especially over the past five years as it sought to keep pace with emerging, tech-forward competitors like Tesla.

From Dialogflow to Gemini

In 2021, GM expanded its OnStar Guardian app, which offered crash detection, emergency assistance, and location sharing, to anyone with a compatible phone, even if they didn't own a GM vehicle. A year later, GM began using Google Cloud's conversational AI Dialogflow to recognize specific spoken requests. In 2023, it expanded the system to give drivers responses to common queries such as routing and navigation assistance — all part of GM's plan to build a $25 billion subscription business by 2030.

GM continued to focus on generative AI but relied on Google to provide the experience. The company said last year that Google Gemini would roll out in vehicles in 2026.

Building an In-House Experience

The OnStar AI Assistant is an in-house effort aimed at giving drivers and passengers an interactive, customized experience — and becoming even more embedded in their daily lives.

"OnStar is now transitioning to be a connected intelligence platform, not just the call center that it's historically been known as, but a mechanism for interpreting, understanding, and providing predictive, proactive support to its [customers]," the company said.

via TechCrunch