AI Browser Revolution: How OpenAI's Atlas and Other AI Agents Are Challenging Google Chrome's Dominance

OpenAI recently introduced an AI-powered web browser built around ChatGPT.

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Technology companies competing for dominance in artificial intelligence are working to revolutionize web searching methods, challenging Chrome browser's supremacy which forms the core of Google's empire.

AI chatbots, initially developed as digital assistants, have progressively integrated with web browsers and can now independently search the internet to provide detailed answers to user queries.

This week, OpenAI launched its latest innovation with what CEO Sam Altman described as an AI-powered web browser centered around ChatGPT.

During a demonstration, OpenAI team members showed how their Atlas browser could generate a shopping list for a dinner based on a specific dish and number of guests.

Atlas joins a growing category of chatbot-browser hybrids including Perplexity's Comet, Microsoft's Copilot-enabled Edge, and newer entrants Dia and Neon.

"So many services and apps are browser-based that it makes a lot of sense to have agentic AI acting in the browser," explained Techsponential's lead analyst Avi Greengart.

While early AI assistants simply provided answers, the focus has shifted toward developing them as "agents" that can independently perform computer or online tasks such as scheduling, making reservations, or ordering food.

AI developers are now aiming to take over the browser's role and streamline how users interact with the web.

"We used to download a lot of applications to our computers," noted SuRo Capital principal Evan Schlossman. "You don't download that many programs anymore; things are moving to the browser."

As AI enhances online exploration tools, they have maintained familiar patterns of internet navigation.

"I think they don't want to change the core experience too much," Greengart said. "Agentic AI following you around and offering help every time you do anything probably isn't right for everyone."

Despite Google's AI expertise, the company hasn't fully integrated agentic features into Chrome comparable to those offered by competitors.

Google has implemented AI Overviews that summarize online search results and provides an "AI Mode" option for searches with enhanced reasoning and multimodal capabilities.

Chrome currently controls more than 70 percent of the browser market, and Google has become synonymous with internet searching.

Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman doesn't anticipate this changing soon, given how deeply Chrome is integrated into modern life.

However, Thomas Thiele, partner at consulting firm Arthur D. Little, suggested OpenAI could gain advantage by combining insights from ChatGPT interactions with Atlas browser data.

"Gathering this information together, you can have more clues about persons than any time before," Thiele said. "We'd at least have a high chance that we'd see the birth of a new Google here."

Deeper user insights could lead to improved online ad targeting, which is Google's primary revenue source.

By controlling the browser experience, an AI company could shape how people interact with technology in the future, according to Thiele.

"In the long run, the browser is not necessarily where everything happens," Newman noted, suggesting that smart glasses or other wearable internet-connected devices might become popular.

"We're shaping behaviour; winning where users currently are is going to be critical for that long-term market share that they are all fighting for."

However, SuRo Capital's Schlossman predicts the AI competition will happen within chatbots rather than browsers.

He referenced a recent demonstration featuring apps integrating into ChatGPT, noting that OpenAI is "trying to control the user interface and optimise and streamline it."