Rivian's AI Assistant Will Order Your Coffee and Book Its Own Service Visits

Rivian is preparing a serious upgrade to its in-car AI next year — and it goes well beyond chatting. According to Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid, the Rivian Assistant will soon run errands and manage service appointments on the owner’s behalf, with a broad rollout targeted for 2027.

The assistant first appeared in May, and since then it has picked up Google Calendar support and, as of October, Gmail. But Bensaid’s ambitions stretch further: he wants Rivian owners to eventually do everything the touchscreen allows — using only their voice.

Coffee, timed to your arrival

One of the more tangible examples Bensaid gave is a morning coffee stop. Rather than fumbling with an app at a red light, drivers could ask the Assistant to place an order at the right shop at the right moment, so the drink is still hot when they pull up.

The bigger idea is what Bensaid calls bringing your own digital ecosystem into the car — linking the vehicle to multiple third-party AI agents instead of locking owners into one walled garden.

Service that anticipates the problem

Perhaps the heavier lift is the service side. Rivian’s AI is being built to spot issues early, schedule the appointment itself, and confirm the service center has the necessary parts waiting before the vehicle arrives.

“That’s a complete paradigm shift in that entire experience… a big efficiency lever for us and it helps us be much more competitive from a cost standpoint for something like service.”

That last point matters. Service costs are a quiet pressure point for any young automaker, and fewer wasted trips or idle lifts translate directly into savings.

The tuning phase

Owners haven’t been shy about flagging rough edges, and Bensaid acknowledged as much. Some refinements are internal work, he said, while others involve partners and how requests are grounded and optimized.

• Timing: many features are already in development and slated for 2027
• Status: Bensaid says the team is “very close” but wants reliability before a wide release
• First integrations: Google Calendar, then Gmail in October
• End goal: full voice-and-AI control of everything now handled by touch

Rivian’s roadmap is ambitious, and the gap between demo and daily reliability is where most in-car assistants stumble. Still, if the company pulls off proactive diagnostics and hands-free scheduling, the payoff is felt on both sides of the transaction — less friction for drivers, leaner operations for Rivian.