The AI Browser Revolution: Our Digital Lives Might Completely Change (Again)

Although posted a month ago, the above post from Greg Isenberg couldn't be closer to the truth of where we're headed. This week, the future of the internet moved us further down this path.

AI-native browsers came into the public psyche.

You're reading an article about a conference in Singapore. Your browser notices and whispers, "I see you're interested in this event. Should I check if your calendar is free for those dates and look for flights?".

You nod yes.

Within seconds, it found three flight options, cross-referenced your meeting schedule, and noticed your hotel points balance.

And asked for your approval to book, without having to reach for your Credit Card or enter your CVC into a pop up.

All while you kept reading about the conference.

This type of customer journey will unfold in the near term with the evolution of AI-native browsers.

We spend hours each day surfing the internet in our browser of choice. Google Chrome for most. But, the old browser wasn't built for the AI age.

Instead of acting as a portal to information, the AI-native browser becomes your co-pilot, seeing your tabs, remembering your context, and executing actions in real time.

AI-native browsers are an emerging trend, with tools like Dia (an experimental AI browser that helps you think and write by turning your browsing into a workspace) capturing the AI community’s attention over the past few months.

Task: Buying a better coffee grinder.

Old way of browsing:

New way of browsing:

The key difference:

All this happens in parallel, instantaneously, without you seeing the messy middle.

The browser won't exist to just show you the web anymore. It'll act on it for you, understanding your full context.

In AI, context is everything the system knows about what you're doing - your open tabs, calendar, location, past searches, and preferences. Most AI today starts from scratch each time. You ask a question, it answers, with minimal memory or awareness.

AI-native browsers change that. They see what you're reading, know what you were doing before, and can act without needing detailed prompts. Instead of you telling the AI what to do, it already knows and just gets on with it.

Features:

There will be people asking how this is different to using AI and any of the other general purpose LLMs inside of Chrome or Safari. Using ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini in Chrome or Safari is like strapping AI onto an old workflow. You’re still doing the work - copying and pasting between tabs, repeating prompts, switching windows, and guiding every step. The AI is separate from what you’re doing. It’s useful, but disconnected.

That’s not how AI-native browsers work. With something like Comet, the AI is built right into the browser. It sees what you see, knows what you’re doing, and acts without you needing to explain everything. You go from typing prompts and waiting for answers, to saying what you want and having the AI do it straight away.

The key difference is memory. Traditional AI tools forget everything between sessions. AI-native browsers remember. They carry context across tabs, across time, and across tasks. The more you use it, the smarter it gets.

Bottom line: In Chrome, you work around the AI. In Comet, the AI works around you.

Naturally the masses won't pay the likes of Perplexity's $200 p/month rate to access Comet. But that cost barrier to entry will change over time.

The arrival of AI-Native browsers is a shot fired in one of the most high-stakes battles in tech. Whoever owns the browser owns the interface. And whoever owns the interface controls the flow of information, attention, and action, and owns the user.

For Google, Chrome has long been the gateway to Google’s dominance in ad revenue and search traffic. But as AI-native browsers like Comet and OpenAI’s upcoming release take hold, users may no longer “Google” anything at all (that tide is already changing). Instead, they’ll delegate tasks to a browser assistant that answers, acts, and completes - without ever landing on a search results page. On top of that, Google is already facing DOJ antitrust pressure, with calls to divest from Chrome. OpenAI has also publicly stated they’d be interested in buying Chrome if it were forced to be sold. Talk about a power play...

For OpenAI, the browser is the ultimate unlock. With ~800 million weekly ChatGPT users already treating it as a starting point for work, research, and decisions, owning the interface means infinite retention. It’s a natural evolution from 'tool' to platform to operating system of the web. This isn’t about improving search, rather it’s about replacing it entirely, embedding agents that understand your full context and act across your digital life (Sam Altman has already public stated that this is the goal).

For Microsoft, the situation is complicated. As OpenAI’s key backer, Microsoft helped fund and distribute GPT at global scale. But it doesn't control the browser layer, and Edge remains an afterthought for most users. Meanwhile, OpenAI is actively diversifying its infrastructure partnerships, including with Google Cloud. Microsoft still benefits from its early bet, but it no longer holds the reins.

For Apple, agentic browsing presents a philosophical conflict. Safari’s reputation is built on privacy and limiting third-party tracking, yet agentic browsers thrive on deep contextual awareness - knowing your calendar, messages, documents, and habits. Apple will have to decide whether to stay rigid in its privacy-first stance or quietly build a competitive offering to maintain control of its ecosystem.

One thing is certain: this isn’t just a new feature category. It’s the potential beginning of a new operating layer for the internet.

We've already seen the term Vibe Browsing coined within 24 hours. What that exactly means, who knows. But it captures something along the lines of browsing by feel, by intent, by outcome - rather than keywords and clicks.

It’ll start off laggy and limited, like any new tech. Comet already has quirks. OpenAI’s browser doesn’t have a name yet. But this is one of those frontiers that could shift how we interact with the web, whether in a flash, or slowly as habits evolve.

It's not guaranteed that AI-native browsers will take off or that new products will be able to challenge Chrome's grip. But when OpenAI starts building in this space, it's a clear signal that something big is coming.