Now, to make its invisible AI mainstream, Google must make its own products. Two of them are especially important: Pixel, which resembles an iPhone, and Home, which looks a bit like a Glade air freshener. These portals to Google Assistant are attractive, but nothing spectacular. “There’s nothing too Earth-shattering about them. The phone is just a piece of aluminum,” says Mark Hung, a tech analyst at research firm Gartner. “What matters is the fact that you’re able to use them fairly seamlessly, through a conversational interface.” "The devices, in other words, exist merely as vessels. Rick Osterloh, head of Google’s new hardware group, suggested as much when he said Google decided to build hardware so the company can “get things done without worrying about the underlying tech.” In this instance, “get things done” means deliver a rich AI experience—something Google’s spent the better part of its existence preparing for."