General Motors is bringing back the OnStar name, this time for an in-house AI assistant that will debut in the US in the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq before spreading to other GM models. The system was announced at the company's GM Forward event.
OnStar AI is GM's own assistant, trained specifically on its vehicles, and it will sit alongside Google Gemini, which GM began rolling out to cars last year, including over-the-air updates to models dating back to 2022.
What OnStar AI can do
GM chief product officer Sterling Anderson drew a clear line between the two systems. "OnStar AI is different than Gemini," he said. "OnStar AI is trained for our vehicles, so the AI in your car will understand your car deeply. Not just understand it – it'll be able to control it."
Anderson said GM did not need to build its own large language model from scratch, instead layering vehicle-specific functionality on top of existing models. In demonstrations at the event, GM's director of product management for voice and vehicle AI, Anna Santos, asked OnStar AI to play a song from a half-remembered lyric, switch on a cabin light she could not name, and explain a "double beep" she had heard earlier in the drive. The assistant identified the sound as a speed limit warning.
She also asked it to stop her dogs opening the doors, which engaged the child locks, then added "the windows as well" without repeating the wake word. The assistant can hand a conversation to a live OnStar advisor without losing context, and owners will be able to upload a photo, of a boat for example, and ask whether their specific vehicle can tow it.
One app for four brands
GM is also folding its separate Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac apps into a single OnStar app from the northern summer of 2027, between June and August. Ed Nightingale, the company's vice president of digital products and infrastructure and a former Microsoft and Apple executive, said the app will combine vehicle controls, family members' vehicles and proactive alerts, such as a warning when other GM vehicles detect slippery roads ahead.
GM repeatedly stressed that features are opt-in and governed by "plain language controls", a point worth reading as a response to the scrutiny the automaker has faced over data-sharing in the US. The company did not say whether OnStar AI would require a paid subscription.
Fleet tools and the open questions
GM also detailed OnStar Fleet Intelligence for small and medium businesses. Its fleet AI assistant, launched earlier this year, will be trained to diagnose vehicle problems like a technician and to advise when.
Several details remain unannounced. GM has not specified which other models will get OnStar AI beyond the Lyriq, nor when the rollout outside the US will begin. Pricing, including whether the assistant is bundled with an OnStar subscription, is also unanswered.
The naming is a deliberate piece of brand recycling. OnStar built its reputation on human advisors and emergency response, and attaching that name to an AI assistant trades on familiarity while signalling that the service is changing shape. The practical test for buyers will be whether the assistant's vehicle-level control, the ability to act on the car rather than just talk about it, proves more useful than the general-purpose Gemini already in the dash. GM's emphasis on opt-in controls suggests it knows trust is the constraint here, not capability.
