For the last 15 years, the rhythm of doing online research has remained largely unchanged. Open a browser. Type a question. Get a list of blue links. Click through 20 tabs in hopes of finding the answer, and then drown in pop-ups and SEO-optimized filler text until you find what you’re looking for. Traditional browsers show you the web, but leave all the work to you.
AI browsers are starting to change that. You don’t need the perfect keyword. You can ask a full question, even a vague one, and still get a useful answer. These tools use semantic search, which focuses on what it thinks you mean, not just the words you type.
Besides an answer, you can get a summary of long texts, citations, a custom comparison table or an image. They can translate languages, offer smart recommendations based on your browsing habits and process voice or visual inputs. Some agentic browser tools can even fill out forms, send emails and book travel for you.
But are these tools a genuine productivity revolution, or just more AI middleman bloat? How accurate is the information they collect and summarize for you? And what are the privacy implications? Here’s everything you need to know about AI browsers before you try them.
What is an AI browser?
There is no universally agreed-upon definition yet. Essentially, an AI browser is a web browser or app that uses artificial intelligence to help you search, summarize, organize or interact with web content. That could mean an integrated AI chatbot that answers questions as you browse, AI tools that summarize articles or entire browsers built around AI agents.
Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge have recently added Gemini and Copilot integration, respectively, allowing you to ask questions about the page you’re viewing. While useful, these are essentially add-ons to a traditional browsing experience.
New tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas and Perplexity’s Comet, put large language models at the center of the browsing experience, letting them shape how you search and consume information from the start.
How AI browsers work
Regular browsers often bury you in repetitive or irrelevant results; AI browsers aim to cut through that clutter. AI tools promise a more focused, conversational experience by adding intelligence and automation.
Instead of just showing a list of links, AI browsers use LLMs to read, interpret and synthesize information based on your request. They summarize webpages, PDFs and videos, follow links and help organize research into folders or threads. They can cross-check claims across sources and read content out loud. Others integrate with applications, including Google Docs and Slack, to pull in context or assist with writing.
That’s possible because the LLM sits inside the browser itself. Rather than passively rendering a webpage, the browser tries to understand your intent and respond accordingly. Some people like the shortcut. Others worry it creates a filter bubble where you only see one version of an answer. And while certain AI browsers provide citations, not all do.
Agentic AI is what separates advanced AI browsers from those that simply add a chatbot to the sidebar. Instead of helping you search, agentic AI takes on the task itself, similar to remote desktop control. It can run searches, open pages, read content, fill out forms, send emails, compare prices, add items to your cart and, if you’re brave enough to allow it, complete purchases. Most tools show a live progress window where you can pause or take back control.
Some of the more advanced features, including agentic mode or deep research, are only available with a paid plan.
Examples of AI browsers
AI browsers are evolving quickly, and many companies are trying to stake a claim. Below are some of the most popular browsers with built-in AI tools and those using machine learning to overhaul the standard browsing experience.
ChatGPT Atlas
ChatGPT Atlas is OpenAI’s browser and is currently available on MacOS. It integrates ChatGPT directly into the browser, allowing conversations to draw on past chats and browsing context.
Atlas includes Browser Memories, which lets the assistant retain context from pages you visit and tasks you work on across sessions. OpenAI has confirmed that Windows, iOS and Android versions are coming, but when exactly isn’t publicly known yet.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Perplexity’s Comet
Comet integrates Perplexity’s AI directly into the browser. It can read pages, follow links and handle tasks such as comparison shopping, navigating checkout flows and adding items to a cart.
Deep Citation links specific claims back to original sources, making it easier to verify where information comes from.
Microsoft Edge with Copilot
Edge integrates Copilot directly into the browser, letting you ask questions about the page you’re viewing, summarize articles or PDFs and generate text without opening a new tab.
Copilot works as a sidebar assistant rather than an autonomous agent, meaning you still control navigation and actions.
Brave
Brave is known for privacy because it blocks trackers and third-party cookies by default and doesn’t profile users for advertising. Its built-in AI assistant, Leo, can summarize webpages, translate text and answer questions about on-screen content. It acts as an assistant rather than taking independent actions on the web.
Opera One
Opera One includes Aria, an AI assistant embedded into the browser sidebar. Aria can answer questions, summarize pages and pull in live web information while you browse.
Opera is the only browser on this list that includes a free built-in VPN.
Dia by The Browser Company
Dia replaces Arc as The Browser Company’s main browser and leans heavily into AI-assisted browsing.
Instead of managing dozens of tabs, you interact through a chat-style interface that can pull context from multiple pages at once and generate summaries or answers.
Duck.ai by DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo built its reputation on privacy well before adding AI features. Duck.ai adds AI-generated answers and summaries to its search experience without replacing traditional search.
Google Chrome with Gemini
Chrome has begun rolling out Gemini-powered features including page summaries, writing assistance and tab organization. These tools enhance the browsing experience but remain add-ons to a conventional browser model.
The risks of letting AI take the wheel
The convenience of having an AI tool summarize the internet for you is undeniable, but there’s a lot of room for security vulnerabilities because AI browsers are still relatively new.
Technology market researcher Gartner warns this newfound «helpfulness» is a «block-worthy» security risk. The advisory outlines five key risks to be aware of. One is indirect prompt injection, where hidden instructions on a webpage can trick an AI agent into taking unauthorized actions. Another is irreversible data leakage, which happens when sensitive session data is sent to cloud-based AI systems and can’t be recovered. There’s also the risk of erroneous agentic transactions, where AI hallucinations could lead to incorrect bookings or purchases. Credential abuse is another concern, as agents may be fooled into handing over passwords or session tokens to phishing sites. Finally, the advisory flags security training evasion, where employees use automation tools to skip required compliance or safety training.
Dennis Xu, one of Gartner’s VP analysts who conducted the research, tells CNET that the firm didn’t arrive at a «block» recommendation because of a single headline incident. Instead, he says the conclusion came from weighing the combined impact of the five risks identified in the advisory, rather than any one tipping-point event.
But Xu also points out that the concern isn’t limited to data exposure to AI providers or malicious sites hijacking an agent — it’s both.
«Data leaking perhaps takes up a bit more weight from a practical sense because indirect prompt injection/jailbreak-based attacks against AI browsers are not solvable at this point. LLMs are always susceptible to prompt injection and jailbreak attacks,» Xu says.
Xu says everyone should be concerned. «Individual consumers have a very different risk appetite than large enterprises, so they might make a very different decision to favor convenience over privacy, data protection, etc.»
And as with anything AI-related, hallucinations are a big concern, too. If an AI browser misinterprets a source or fabricates a statistic while summarizing it, you might never know because you never visited the original source to verify it. Or if it over-summarizes, you may miss key context when everything’s boiled down. The bottom line? You’re trading accuracy for convenience.
There’s also a massive, existential threat to the creator economy. The internet has long run on a tacit agreement: Websites provide free information in exchange for traffic, which they monetize through ads or subscriptions. But the following statistics are warning bells — ones that could turn into sirens if nothing changes. AI-driven search traffic jumped 527% in 2025 and could overtake traditional search by 2028, according to Semrush. While Google still processes about 13.7 billion searches a day, that dominance may not last. Zero-click searches already account for 34% to 43% of standard queries, but that figure jumps to 93% in AI Mode, contributing to a reported 33% drop in organic traffic for most websites.
When an AI browser reads five articles and delivers the answer directly in search — without you ever clicking through — the economic model collapses.
Who are AI browsers for?
If you read a lot online, do frequent research for work or school or need help staying organized, AI browsers can be useful.
But if, like me, you prefer reading source material directly (even while juggling dozens of open tab), these tools may feel like too much hand-holding.
The future of web browsing
Traditional browsers are slowly adding AI sidekicks. AI chat apps are adding web browsing. But search isn’t dead. Maybe it’s best to mix them based on your needs and preferences. Use Google for complex searches that you can easily fact-check, ChatGPT or Perplexity for summaries and an AI browser to pull it all together.
While you probably won’t uninstall Chrome today, the way you use the internet five years from now will almost certainly involve an AI co-pilot guiding your clicks.
