General Motors is adding a new personal AI assistant to its subscription-based connected car service OnStar, as part of a larger overhaul of this service that has a history of 30 years.

General Motors stated at an event held in New York on Wednesday that OnStar AI Assistant will be first incorporated into the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq electric vehicle in the coming months, and will subsequently be extended to more General Motors models. The company also announced that it will launch a new OnStar mobile app in 2027, which will work in conjunction with and in sync with the in-vehicle software.

The new OnStar mobile application will replace the currently available OnStar Guardian application, as well as the brand applications for Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC.

This time, the restart, which is technology-centric, is different from previous modernization attempts for OnStar. Notably, a proxy-based AI has been placed in a central position. Over the past few years, General Motors has updated this safety and roadside assistance service multiple times, especially in the past five years, attempting to keep up with emerging, technology-driven competitors such as Tesla.

In 2021, General Motors extended its OnStar Guardian application to anyone who owned a compatible smartphone, allowing them to use features such as collision detection, emergency assistance, and location sharing, even if they did not own a General Motors vehicle. A year later, General Motors began using Google Cloud's conversational AI Dialogflow to recognize specific voice requests, and in 2023, it further expanded this to provide drivers with answers to common questions, such as route planning and navigation assistance—all part of General Motors' plan to build a $25 billion subscription business by 2030.

General Motors continues to focus on generative AI, but the experience is provided by Google. The company stated last year that Google Gemini would be launched in vehicles in 2026.

OnStar AI Assistant is a project developed internally by General Motors, with the goal of providing an interactive and personalized experience for drivers and passengers, and further integrating it into their daily lives.

General Motors' Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson stated in an interview with TechCrunch prior to the GM Forward event: "GM is now transforming into a connected intelligent platform, and it is no longer just the call center that it has been known for throughout its history; it will become a mechanism used to interpret, understand, and provide predictive, proactive support to car owners."

For example, the cameras in the vehicle will be connected to software to provide real-time footage as well as records of collisions and safety incidents. Users can set up the networked cameras to automatically activate when the vehicle detects an impending event—such as hearing a loud horn—subsequently recording the event and uploading it to the OnStar application. Users can also control certain functions of the vehicle via voice commands, including the air conditioning, and can ask questions about any specific vehicle feature.

This release comes at a time when the entire automotive industry is striving to catch up with Chinese automakers, which have made technology a core aspect of their vehicles, rather than just an additional gimmick or feature. However, this also requires General Motors to change its software development methods, adopting the AI tool, and even designing new electrical architectures and centralized computing vehicle architectures.

This announcement also comes after General Motors was criticized and even fined for sharing data with third parties. The company stated that customers will be able to decide which data is shared, and that the related recordings are time-limited and encrypted. General Motors claims that neither it nor OnStar has access to the content of the recordings from Connected Camera.