Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders.<\/em> Subscribe Now<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rumors that OpenAI is set to release a gen AI-powered web browser to rival Alphabet\u2018s Google Chrome have amped up excitement about the future of search and how AI will fundamentally change how we browse the web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this seeming next phase of the internet, search engines won\u2019t just point to information; intelligent agents will find it for us and even act on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about better answers; it\u2019s about redefining the interface between humans and the web,\u201d Ja-Na\u00e9 Duane, a Brown University faculty member and MIT CISR research fellow, told VentureBeat. \u201cBy embedding a conversational, task-completing AI into the browser itself, OpenAI is signaling the end of search as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gen AI-powered search is fundamentally different from traditional search, as it not only fetches the most relevant links in response to a query, but summarizes and directly links to them. Users won\u2019t have to scroll URLs, websites or databases to get the information they need. For enterprises, this means that SEO may eventually become obsolete, so they must fundamentally rethink their\u00a0online strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AI Impact Series Returns to San Francisco – August 5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The next phase of AI is here – are you ready? Join leaders from Block, GSK, and SAP for an exclusive look at how autonomous agents are reshaping enterprise workflows – from real-time decision-making to end-to-end automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secure your spot now – space is limited: https:\/\/bit.ly\/3GuuPLF<\/p>\n\n\n\n Presumably, OpenAI\u2019s goal is to keep users inside GPT-like interfaces as long as possible. A dedicated browser would allow the company to directly integrate products such as Operator, which handles repetitive browser tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latter, ultimately, is the future of AI-powered search, experts say: Agents that fetch information for users and get to know their habits, interests and goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re moving into an era where the browser doesn\u2019t just respond, it anticipates,\u201d said Duane. \u201cThe future of search is not about finding, it\u2019s about fulfilling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whenever OpenAI enters the gen AI-powered search space, it will face a slate of competition, including from Perplexity, Dia, Arc, Andi, Bagoodex, Komo You.com and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Notably, Perplexity\u2019s Comet was launched earlier this month, but is currently only available to customers on the $200-per-month tier. The company says it will roll out the browser to additional users on an invite-only basis, and eventually make it free.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perplexity is \u201cexcellent for deep research,\u201d noted Wyatt Mayham of Northwest AI Consulting, but its current price tag gears it toward power users, not the mass market.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perplexity is \u201cfast, task-oriented\u201d and being increasingly adopted in knowledge work, noted Johnny Hughes, co-founder and CMO at marketing and advertising firm Avenue Z. \u201cThe issue? Source transparency and trust are still hit or miss,\u201d he said. You.com, Arc and others also have good user interface (UI) experimentation, but \u201clack scale, funding or core differentiators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dia, meanwhile, as Mayham put it, is \u201crethinking the browser from scratch with modular AI features, but faces the uphill battle of adoption in a space dominated by incumbents.\u201d And, its intent-sensitive automation is also more constrained.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Incumbents have also taken steps to compete. Chrome has introduced AI Mode and Bing offers Copilot search, while Firefox, DuckDuckGo and others have incorporated AI chatbots and sidebars, as well as integrated AI summaries into search results. Still, these are more conservative and remain closer to traditional assistive search, and are beholden to ad revenue models and legacy UX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What could set ChatGPT apart from the others is its strong market share, deep industry partnerships \u2014 and the fact that it has 500 million weekly active users.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts say one advantage is its task-oriented nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInstead of giving you a list of links, their upcoming browser agent aims to complete actions (book a flight, order groceries, handle forms),\u201d said Mayham of Northwest AI Consulting. \u201cThat\u2019s a different model than Google\u2019s ad-driven approach and has major implications for how discovery happens online.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is indeed a \u201cbig shift in mental models,\u201d agreed Hughes of Avenue Z. Google was built to index and rank, while OpenAI is engineered to understand, synthesize and serve intent-based outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019re not trying to \u2018crawl the web,\u2019 they\u2019re trying to comprehend it,\u201d he said, emphasizing that today\u2019s users are searching for direct answers, not just links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OpenAI\u2019s advantage over rivals is its massive developer ecosystem, built-in user behavior via ChatGPT and direct feedback loops from billions of prompts. Where Perplexity functions as a powerful agentic assistant, and Gemini augments search with context and extensions, \u201cOpenAI is positioned to become the OS layer of the internet,\u201d said Hughes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The browser wars have been ongoing for years, and Chrome remains the far-and-away dominant player.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to marketing intelligence firm Datos, the tech giant maintained a 90.15% share of the U.S. user base and 92.49% in Europe between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025. By contrast, ChatGPT accounted for just 0.29% of desktop events in the U.S. and 0.32% in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShort of a miracle, I have a hard time seeing any new browser having any kind of material impact on Google\u2019s browser dominance for quite some time, if at all,\u201d said Eli Goodman, Datos\u2019 CEO and co-founder.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI tools will show value in areas including summarization, research acceleration and \u201cmitigating tab fatigue,\u201d he said. \u201cBut an existential threat to Google? Not yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For AI browsers to truly disrupt the market, they\u2019ll need to prove that their end-to-end experience is not just faster or smarter, but consistently more useful than what users already know, he noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n ChatGPT is strong at answering well-formed questions using its internal knowledge and language reasoning, but it lacks access to real-time, long-tail and less-indexed web content, said Vladyslav Hamolia, AI product lead at Mac app builder MacPaw.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is where a traditional browser-plus-search engine still plays a key role, surfacing newly published pages, live prices, event-specific updates or in-depth technical documentation,\u201d said Hamolia. \u201cThe browser is not just a UI layer; it\u2019s a gateway to navigating and filtering a vast, dynamic web that models alone cannot fully absorb.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google remains dominant in crawling depth (with two decades of crawling infrastructure), semantic understanding of web structure (sitemaps, structured data) and personalized relevance, he noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brian Jackson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, pointed out that Chrome users also likely use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and other Google platforms. \u201cOpenAI and Perplexity don\u2019t have that same gamut of services.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if their AI agents can begin replacing more Google tools beyond search, they can win some market share.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe also have to consider what strategy OpenAI and Perplexity take with their browsers,\u201d said Jackson. \u201cRight now, Perplexity makes Comet available only for its paying users, so at the moment, it\u2019s more of an added value to draw in subscribers rather than trying to win browser market share.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The advantages of AI search may not be truly seen for some time, said Info-Tech\u2019s Jackson.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Comet touts its ability to summarize and translate every page instantly, that\u2019s not so different from what can be accomplished with Chrome \u2014 especially once you consider its extensive library of available extensions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese AI browsers will literally be trying to interpret the goal of users,\u201d he said. \u201cThey will make suggestions, offer to automate routine tasks, find product comparisons or source multiple quotes for services. \u201cBrowsers could transition from being mere windows to web content to agentic assistants that help users achieve their digital goals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, resistance to new technology is always a factor, he pointed out. Users who reject the AI summaries they see in core search will likely also reject the notion that AI should be at the forefront of browsing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe early days of user experience will be important here, and if we see browsers recommending that users put glue on pizza or other silly things like that, it won\u2019t help with adoption,\u201d said Jackson.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another distinguishing factor with AI search is models\u2019 ability to persist memory across sessions and assist with task execution in-browser.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe risk, however, is user trust,\u201d said Kaveh Vahdat, founder and president at fractional CMO agency RiseOpp. \u201cA browser that thinks and remembers raises legitimate privacy concerns unless boundaries are clearly defined.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moving from static search bars to dynamic AI interfaces that learn, adapt and integrate with internal systems also introduces new exposure points, especially when proprietary data is surfaced by models operating across public and private content, he noted. Enterprises must be prepared to revisit access controls and ensure AI agents align with governance and compliance standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese tools are converging in functionality but diverging in user control,\u201d said Vahdat. \u201cThe key differentiator may not be capability, but how well each platform balances autonomy with transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether sooner or later, how should enterprises prepare for a new search environment where SEO is no longer relevant?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of your site as a reference point for AI systems, advised Mayham of Northwest AI Consulting. Content should be clear, factual and structured so AI tools can easily surface information. Also, prepare for conversational commerce by ensuring product data and checkout flows are API-friendly and that AI agents can complete transactions without friction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, invest in brand authority; if AI cites sources, it\u2019ll use a brand name, not just keywords. \u201cBrand trust is critical,\u201d said Mayham, and is achieved by being featured on other authoritative websites or reviewed well on review platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEnterprises should stop thinking in blue links and start building content that answers, reasons and resonates,\u201d agreed Avenue Z\u2019s Hughes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, it is critical to make the customer experience interoperable with agentic AI, emphasized Brown University\u2019s Duane.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSoon, users won\u2019t be browsing; they\u2019ll be delegating,\u201d she said. \u201cYou need to prepare your systems not just to be found, but to be understood by AI.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily<\/strong><\/p>\n If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tThanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n An error occured.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>What exactly is gen AI-powered search?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n<\/div>The current gen AI-powered search landscape\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
OpenAI\u2019s potential advantage in search<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But can OpenAI really topple Google?\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Advantages and disadvantages of AI web browsers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What enterprises should do now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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