AI Browsers May Just Change the Way We Surf

Tech and AI companies are racing to develop AI-powered browsers with smart assistants that may revolutionize how we use the internet

- Ivan Mehta

The rapid rise of ChatGPT made companies realize that the time was ripe to launch AI-powered tools and have millions of people try them quickly. This, in turn, meant that people using AI tools are spending a lot of time in their browser windows, which edged companies into building new browsers or adding AI capabilities to existing browsers to turn them into "AI browsers". There is no textbook definition of these new-age "AI browsers," but at the minimum, they have an AI assistant or chatbot baked in that can answer your questions using the context of the site you are on or the wider web. This assistant can summarize points from a webpage, format text, or rewrite a draft email for you in a different tone.

The companies making these browsers want to promise the sun, the moon, and automating agents that handle every task for you. While that future is a bit far away, what they can do is execute mini-apps for you or retrieve information for you from the apps you have connected.