GM, Google Cloud Share Details on AI Initiatives

DETROIT – General Motors and Google Cloud on Tuesday shared new details on how the two companies collaborated to bring conversational AI technology into millions of GM vehicles.

Since its launch in 2022, GM’s OnStar Interactive Virtual Assistant has been powered by intent-recognition algorithms that use Google Cloud’s conversational AI technologies, providing OnStar members with responses to common inquiries, as well as routing and navigation assistance. 

The successful deployment of Google Cloud’s AI in GM’s OnStar service has opened the door to future generative AI deployments being jointly piloted by GM and Google Cloud, the companies said in a joint statement.

“General Motors is at the forefront of deploying AI in practical and effective ways that ultimately create better customer experiences,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “We’re looking forward to a deepened relationship and more collaboration with GM as we explore how the company uses generative AI in transformational ways.”

Mike Abbott, executive vice president of Software and Services at GM, said working with Google Cloud is “another example of our efforts to transform how customers engage with our products and services.”

“Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize the buying, ownership and interaction experience inside the vehicle and beyond, enabling more opportunities to deliver new features and services,” Abbott said. “Our software-led approach has accelerated the creation of compelling services for our customers while driving increased efficiency across the GM enterprise.”

GM’s OnStar Interactive Virtual Assistant, which launched in 2022, uses advanced AI-based, intent recognition technologies powered by Google Cloud’s Dialogflow technology to provide OnStar members with routing and navigation assistance, including turn-by-turn directions. The OnStar virtual assistant assists with common inquiries initiated by the nonemergency OnStar blue button push in GM vehicles, but also seeks to distinguish phrases and words that may signify an emergency situation and help to quickly route the call to OnStar’s specially trained emergency advisors.

With Google Cloud’s conversational AI technology, GM’s OnStar virtual assistant is now handling more than 1 million customer inquiries per month in the U.S. and Canada and is available in most model year 2015 and newer GM vehicles connected by OnStar.

Additionally, GM is using Google Cloud’s Dialogflow technology to deploy chatbots that can help answer customer questions about GM vehicles and product features based on information from GM’s vehicle data repositories. The chatbots are active across GM’s corporate and vehicle brand websites to assist customers looking for specific vehicle-related information.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.