Earlier today at its "Made by Google" event, Google previewed its upcoming Assistant with Bard, an upgraded AI-enhanced version of its digital assistant designed to provide more personalized and proactive help to users. Powered by conversational AI capabilities from Google Bard, Assistant promises a new generation of personal AI that will understand users' needs in more intuitive ways.
The company highlighted how Assistant with Bard combines the strengths of its existing Google Assistant with Bard's generative AI. This allows the assistant to have natural conversations, follow-up on tasks, and take requested actions using text, voice, or images.
Google wants Assistant to go beyond answering queries to actively assisting with everyday tasks. It provided examples like creating a birthday party email summary, generating social media captions, or compiling a shopping list based on prompts and context.
Crucially, Assistant with Bard is designed to integrate directly into Google services like Gmail, Docs, and Photos to simplify access and leverage user data to personalize its capabilities. On Android, Google is building a conversational overlay where users can summon Assistant over any screen.
The company positions this assistant as a major evolution toward a more helpful, proactive and personalized AI agent integrated into its products. It contrasts with Alexa or Siri which are focused narrowly on voice commands.
Google plans to roll out Assistant with Bard slowly, starting with early feedback groups over the next few months. It stresses privacy controls will allow users to customize data access.
The launch represents a key milestone as tech giants race to enhance virtual assistants with generative AI. It could substantially alter digital experience if the AI proves capable of complex, contextual interactions. But skepticism remains over whether it can successfully understand personal needs versus simply generating plausible text. Real-world experience will reveal if Google's revamped assistant constitutes an AI breakthrough or just an incremental improvement.