Perplexity is going to launch its own browser. It is one more proof that traditional browsers fall short in the AI ​​era

Perplexity He has announced Cometa browser specifically designed for the AI ​​era. It is part of something else: of the trend in which several technology seek to reimagine how we interact with the web.

Why is it important. The next wave of A -centered browsers reveals an uncomfortable truth: traditional browsers are not optimized for a world in which AI agents will act as intermediaries between information and us.

Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox can improve whatever they want in these capabilities, but IA deserves a creation from scratch. The Browser Company understood and paralyzed the development of ARC to create something new: day.

The context. Perpleplexity has opened its waiting list for Comet, its next browser that promises to “reinvent” our way of accessing the web. This movement comes just weeks after OpenAi will present its operator agentand in the middle of Rumors about a possible OpenAi’s own browser.

Current browsers were designed for humans who use keyboards and mice, not for ia agents who need to interact with the website of radically different shapes.

Yes, but. The first generation of AI agents as Openai Operator uses chrome modified versions to complete tasks, offering an almost theatrical show: we see a bot by moving a cursor and writing how a human would do. It is effective, but also inefficient.

Chrome use as a base poses another problem: what will happen when Google completely integrates Gemini In your browser? Rivals such as Openai and Perplexity will be vulnerable to Alphabet.

New era. The race to create the final browser for the AI ​​era remembers the Navigators War of the 90s, when Netscape and Microsoft struggled to dominate Internet access.

That conflict initially won Microsoft with Internet Explorer, but Google Chrome, which did not even exist then, ended up dominating the market years later. The lesson is clear: the winner of this new battle can be a company that still does not have a browser. Or that it has not even been founded yet.

• Several actors are already on stage: Perplexity with Comet, the aforementioned The Browser Company with Dia, and rumors on similar OpenAi projects.
• The integration of AI models such as Claude, Gemini and GPT directly in the navigation experience will be key.

Between the lines. True innovation does not consist of adding functions from AI to existing browsers, but completely reimagining the navigator concept.

A browser designed for the AI ​​era should allow both traditional human use and the efficient functioning of autonomous agents, perhaps with different ways according to who is “behind the wheel.”

• The browsers Ai-first They will probably dispense with interface elements designed for humans when they operate in automatic mode, using more efficient APIS and communication channels to interact with the web.
• A good simile is that of the autonomous car: if it is able to drive on its own, it makes no sense that it makes a steering wheel, pedals and five seats looking forward: you can and must reimagine the cabin completely.

Deepen. For companies such as Perplexity, launching its own browser not only involves diversifying its product offer, but also ensuring their independence from the platforms controlled by their competitors. Same incentives that OpenAI has to launch its own proposal.

The browser has historically been the entrance door to the Internet, and whoever controls this door will have a disproportionate influence on our digital experience. Google knows it well: Chrome has provided you a huge strategic advantage.

• We are witnessing the birth of a new category of software that could transform our relationship with the Internet as much as the original browsers did.

The question is not whether browsers Ai-first They will replace the traditional ones, but when they will do it and who will lead this transformation. Openai looks like the great threat to him status quo from Google. And there will be more.

Outstanding image | Perplexity, Xataka with mockuuups studio

In Xataka | Mozilla’s long crisis: an eternal users and a Google dependency that is still majority