Gemini in action.
Google is turning Chrome from a window into the internet into a worker. Gemini will live inside the browser, shifting Chrome from a passive website renderer to an active assistant that sits where your intent begins.
This isn't a simple feature drop; billions of people will soon be accessing Gemini by default, and this will reset the baseline for how the internet works.
What an AI browser is
We covered this in a previous write up. To recap:
Old browsers were built for navigation and rendering. You typed, clicked, and managed tabs. An AI browser is built for delegation, understanding and doing.
It sits in the flow of your work, sees the page you are on with your permission, remembers what you were doing across tabs, and takes the next step for you.
It plans and executes multi-step tasks for you like booking travel, ordering groceries, or rescheduling a meeting. It hands back a result instead of another list of links.
It keeps your context live across sessions so you do not have to copy, paste, and re explain.
The step-change of an AI-native browser is the delegation capability. This is assistance embedded inside the act of browsing, not chat in a side panel.
Why now from Google
Perplexity’s Comet became my go to for a period of time thanks to Lenny’s product bundle.
It built on what Dia’s browser had started: Dia had launched it's AI-browser first to a niche corner of the internet, paving the way.
Comet then put the AI browser in more people’s hands, showing that a browser which can research / reason / act directly from the page wasn’t just experimental, it was a real possibility.
OpenAI confirmed it is building a browser, signalling the battleground is now the browser itself.
Google stayed quiet under the antitrust cloud, then moved from the moment it could. With the cloud cleared, Google is now wiring Gemini into Chrome, the default gateway to the web for most of the world.
What Chrome is actually shipping
Gemini inside Chrome. A native panel that understands the page you’re on and the tabs you’ve got open. It can explain, compare, and draft in place. No copy-paste, no tab juggling. It works off what’s on screen and what’s already in your session.
AI Search Mode in the address bar. Type real sentences, and get answers before you hit enter. Follow up right there without bouncing to a results page.
Multi-tab reasoning. Research without the sprawl across tabs, as Chrome can pull information from multiple tabs to produce a single summary or side-by-side comparison, then let you pick up the same thread tomorrow.
Recall. Natural-language search over your own browsing: “show me the cream sofa I looked at last week”. No more hunting through 50 half-remembered tabs.
Apps in-browser. With deep hooks into Calendar, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, and Workspace so actions can happen where you are.
Enterprise controls. Rolling out through Workspace with admin toggles, data protections, and policy guardrails. IT can enable what’s useful and lock down what isn’t.
Agentic browsing (next). Multi-step chores handled with checkpoints: book the haircut, reorder the groceries, reschedule a delivery, fill the form.
Agent economy foundations. Under the hood, Google is laying rails (AI browsing agents + an AP2 payments protocol in development) so workflows and transactions can execute end-to-end inside the browser.
Together they show how Chrome is moving from product updates to platform advantage. The line between “search engine” and “browser” will further blur as the browser becomes your AI productivity hub, trimming the friction in everyday activities.
Chrome is the AI onramp for billions
If these features stick, Gemini becomes the default assistant simply by riding Chrome’s reach. Perplexity Comet proved there is demand for an agentic browser; Google now takes that pattern and ships it to the largest installed base on earth. This is how distribution leadership looks in reality, by turning a good idea into the standard.
Device and OS. Android dominates global smartphone share. Apple leads in the US and in premium tiers, but most of the world is Android-first. Embedding Gemini into Chrome means Google owns the entry point on those devices. And because Chrome is also strong on desktop and present on iOS, Gemini does not just ride Android’s footprint, it extends across every major platform and gives Google the widest AI browser reach.
Internet gateway. Google already controls the front door to the internet. Even on iPhone, Chrome competes seriously with Safari in many regions. Apple experimenting with Gemini inside Siri shows where gravity is shifting: towards assistants that act, not just answer. By controlling both the browser and the assistant, Google compounds its advantage. Every search, tab, and task becomes a place for Gemini to step in.
Workspace. Microsoft still rules the traditional enterprise market. Google, however, is winning in startups, education, and a growing share of mid-market and Fortune 500 teams. With Gemini inside Chrome, Google can join consumer and business behaviour into a single continuum. Permissioned signals from Workspace apps such as Calendar, Gmail, Docs, and Drive flow into the browser, making answers sharper and actions smarter. This context turns Chrome from a work tool into the AI hub for both work and life.
In terms of who wins this market, betting against Google is a big call. If distribution sets the starting line, the next question is who gets to shape that baseline, and how the race has unfolded so far.
Dia proved an agentic browser was possible.
Comet showed people actually wanted it.
Google is now making it default at scale.
OpenAI is the wildcard with a massive chat user base that can convert the minute a browser lands.
Apple is betting on Siri and system-level AI, not Safari. Microsoft Edge has Copilot bolted on, but the innovation layer in browsers isn’t coming from these players (yet).
Distribution decides behaviour, and people rarely switch tools unless the new thing removes friction. An AI browser does exactly that by seeing context, planning steps, and completing outcomes in place. Agents work best where the work already happens, and for most people that is the browser. With Chrome as the default for seven out of ten people online, real agentic capability resets the baseline for everyone.
This is also the loop that locks in. Browser context makes answers better. Better answers create habit. Habit expands distribution. Distribution generates more permissioned runtime signals. Those signals make answers better again. Chrome’s reach spins this loop faster than anyone else.
Near-term reality check
That is the long-term flywheel. But in the short term, the picture is messier.
Startups will keep pushing the frontier, but the incumbent controls the on-ramp. In the AI era, defaults will still decide behaviour. Chrome wiring Gemini across tabs, history, Calendar, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Drive locks this in, turning Chrome from a navigation tool into the operating system of your AI life.
Written by Mike ✌
Passionate about all things AI, emerging tech and start-ups, Mike is the Founder of The AI Corner.
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