The future of web browsers 

Google Chrome has reigned supreme as the internet’s preferred web browser for over a decade, but a new crop of browsers could pose a threat. 

These browsers are powered by agentic AI, which is different from generative AI:

• Generative AI can create text, images, or videos based on prompts.
• Agentic AI can make decisions and perform autonomous tasks on behalf of the user. 

Generative AI can make you an image of a cool car. Agentic AI can drive one.

Agentic browsers understand the internet and their users, and could summarize webpages, schedule and book reservations, compare purchase options, offer public transit or traffic info, and more. 

Who’s involved? 

• Perplexity launched its agentic browser, Comet, this week. It claims to be able to save users hours — all without an overabundance of browser tabs.
• OpenAI is reportedly preparing to launch its own agentic web browser in the near future integrating its Operator web agent and including a ChatGPT interface.
• Opera launched its invite-only agentic browser, Neon, earlier this year that it claims can even code for you.

Do they work?

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas shared a video to X that showed a user asking Comet to use Google Maps to create a walking tour of London attractions, then to summarize a Slack discussion among several software engineers in layman’s terms.

TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff’s review of Comet found it to be efficient at simple tasks, but not so much for more complex asks. For example, it could adequately summarize emails and the details of Zeff’s calendar, but hallucinated when asked to book him a parking spot in San Francisco for an upcoming trip. 

That said, there’s a lot of promise as to what agentic browsers can and could do, especially as they improve and add new features. However, there are a few caveats: 

• Zeff’s review noted that to use Comet to its full potential requires granting Perplexity a lot of permissions. For example, access to your Google account and permission to view your screen.
• While Google Chrome is free — aside from the part where it bombards you with ads — these browsers may not be.  Comet is currently available to Perplexity Max subscribers, who pay $200/month.