The New Browser Wars

A new generation of AI-based browsers is slowly but steadily challenging Google’s reign – highlighted none more than by the recent public launch of Perplexity AI’s Comet browser. Is Google Chrome’s monopoly slipping and are AI browsers set to become mainstream? How is web search itself transforming and how do websites adapt to win in this new landscape? And what skills must students equip themselves with to meet these changing demands?

Google Chrome has served as the default gateway to the web for a while – controlling how and where we search, the browser market share, extensions and a significant portion of the digital real-estate for websites, advertisers and publishers. In fact, according to research by StatsCounter, over 90% of all web browser traffic falls between Google’s Chrome (over 71%), Apple’s Safari (about 14%) and Microsoft’s Edge (about 5%).

However a tectonic shift is all set to soon challenge its hegemony: browsers that cease to be passive screens into the internet, instead built on the desire to be active helpers in search and browsing. This is a key change, since when a browser turns out to be like an agent that consolidates, generalises and automates processes, the conventional pattern in which websites generate traffic by getting search hits will almost certainly need to be broken as well.

Will Google Chrome’s dominance erode?

Yes – but very gradually and not uniformly. Chrome is no longer uncontested. Yet, it still retains significant share in the market across the globe, providing it with network effects and inertia.

However, the introduction of Perplexity’s Comet and others promises a likely set of credible competitors with significant investors (Nvidia, SoftBank) and scope of a mass transition to agentic browsing. In fact, most new browsers integrate AI agents into the browsing experience in a manner that transforms it into a platform for automation, summarising and task-completion, rather than just as a means of displaying webpages.

The nature of the disruption is the key here. This is not so much of an effort to substitute Chrome one day as it is altering the very function of browsing/searching. Google has reacted by putting more AI into Chrome, yet a legacy brand ecosystem could act as a drag to agility. Still, going up against Google in a battle of search or browsing has historically mostly proven to be a fool’s errand.

One of the strongest aspects of Chrome’s framework– security – is firmly at the centre of this move. Audits have made several users uneasy about Comet. The mere addition of AI does not guarantee any sense of trust or parity.

So while Google is still the leader today, its structural power can definitely be undermined in time in case AI-browsers will provide a better experience, leading to a shift in web traffic and advertising patterns as well.

How is search changing?

The browser-search relationship is set to be rewired in a number of ways:

• Search box to AI assistant: People no longer are required to type queries and choose links, as they are now able to ask browsers (or in-built assistants) to summarise, compare, perform things. An example reported by The Verve is Comet being able to summarize a hurricane-season forecast and email it on behalf of the user.

• From clicks-throughs to consumption within the browser: When an AI browser presents something that answers your queries (and possibly, task automation) without you having to visit several sites, the traditional model of a ‘website as a destination’ may evolve. This is consequential to marketers, publishers and SEOs.

• From keywords to context and intent: Search will cease to be about which website has keyword X and more about which one can be integrated as part of the overall task of the user, as AI browsers add more multi-step functionality (book a flight, compare products, summarise research).

• From search engine supremacy to browser-as-search-platform: In the past, a user would open Chrome and then visit Google Search. AI browsers might unite browsing, search and agentic behaviour in a single interface, removing the power of the search engines and giving it to the browsers.

• Action-based instead of traffic-based: Instead of driving visits, websites might need to evolve to enable tasks (e.g., summarisation, API integrations, modular content) since browsers/agents will extract and reuse content.

The Contenders

Some of the most likely competitors in the market include:

• ChatGPT Atlas: OpenAI’s AI-native browser that turns web navigation into task execution. Instead of serving pages, it delivers outcomes – summarising, sourcing, and acting through agentic browsing. With built-in verification and citations, Atlas positions the browser itself as the web’s thinking layer.

• Comet: A web engine released July 2025, based on Chromium, combines search with the Perplexity AI engine to produce an assistant capable of summarising webpages, automating (email, scheduling), and surfing the internet with the user instead of a web search engine simply serving up pages. Initially made available at a paid-tier level, but now generally available.

• Dia: Developed by the Browser Company with a focus on inline AI support (summaries, tab-chat) is a niche but significant player in the AI browser market.

• Brave: A privacy-centric web browser that has released an AI project named Leo capable of analysing documents, summarising and answering questions in real-time, providing users with a choice of an AI-focused alternative.

• Sigma AI: Another smaller player with AI content creation, summarisation and productivity, all wrapped in a browser-shaped wrapper.

• Microsoft Edge: Edge is obviously not a new browser on this list, but it has fully incorporated AI through its Copilot assistant and Bing AI capabilities - taking a more traditional browser to the AI-enhanced age.

• Opera One/Opera Neon: Opera has been experimenting with AI sidebars and messengers for a long time. Its AI agent called Aria (featured in One) and Neon – a fully agentic browser that can browse the web and take actions, operating based on intent, clearly shows the direction mainstream browsers are heading towards.

The gateway into the web is changing – the ‘browser + search’ product is soon transforming into a ‘task-agent’ platform.