Google Assistant update signals company's aims for consumer AI

Assistant was launched a year ago during Google's first hardware event. During the company's Pixel 2 unveiling yesterday, Google said Assistant is meant to be "helpful, simple to use [and] available where you need it." With these fundamentals in mind, Assistant will soon be expanded with several new features meant to differentiate it from competitors including Siri and Alexa. Running Routines Amazon recently unveiled its new range of Alexa-enabled products. They come with Routines, a feature that allows several linked actions to be run from a single voice command.