The State of AI Browser Agents in 2025

The year 2025 has seen an explosion of AI-powered browser agents, intelligent assistants that can navigate web pages, fill forms, summarize content, and even execute multi-step tasks within your web browser. Tech giants and startups alike are racing to integrate these agents into browsers, marking the browser as a new battleground in the AI landscape. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the state of AI browser agents in 2025, examining the major players, their approaches, availability, and the pros and cons of each. We'll also highlight how FillApp, an AI browser agent focused on productivity, fits into this rapidly evolving scene.

What Are AI Browser Agents?

AI browser agents are a new breed of assistants that go beyond static search answers or text generation, instead actively interacting with web content. Traditional AI chatbots (like early ChatGPT or Google Bard) could retrieve information, but they did not click links, fill out web forms, or manipulate content directly in the way a human user would. In contrast, the latest browser agents can control a cursor, scroll pages, click buttons, enter text, and navigate sites autonomously. In essence, these agents combine the conversational understanding of large language models with the ability to take actions in a web environment, blurring the line between a web browser and an AI assistant.

Several factors have converged to make 2025 the breakout year for these agents:

Advances in Large Models: New state-of-the-art models (such as GPT-4, GPT-5 and Claude 2/4) provide the reasoning ability needed to make complex decisions and parse web content reliably.
Tool Integration: AI systems are now designed with tool use in mind. They can use browsers as tools, run code, or call APIs when needed.
User Demand for Automation: Professionals and general users are looking to offload tedious tasks like filling the same forms repeatedly or sifting through dozens of tabs to an AI helper.
Industry Investment: Virtually every major tech company (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and more) and many startups are investing in agentic AI, viewing it as the "last missing piece" toward more general AI assistance.

These agents take different forms – some are built into web browsers or extensions, others accessible via chat interfaces. Before diving into individual products, let’s categorize the approaches and why they matter.

Types of AI Browser Agents

Not all AI browser agents are created equal. We can distinguish them by how they integrate with the browsing experience:

Integrated AI Browsers: Some companies have built entire web browsers with AI at the core. These browsers (e.g. Perplexity's Comet and The Browser Company's Dia) replace or augment your usual browser. The AI is available natively to assist with browsing, and can even act as the primary interface. For example, Comet is a stand-alone browser where you can surf normally and summon an AI assistant to help with tasks on the page. Dia, an AI-first browser from The Browser Company, bakes chat and automation into the address bar and interface itself. The advantage of this approach is deep integration: AI can access all open tabs, your browsing history (if allowed), and provide a fluid experience. However, these require users to switch browsers, a significant change in habit, and they are often in early beta stages.
Browser Extensions (Plug-ins): Another approach is to offer the AI agent as a browser extension or plug-in that works with popular browsers like Chrome or Edge. This is the route taken by FillApp's AI Browser Agent, Anthropic's Claude for Chrome, and others. An extension can overlay AI capabilities onto any website you visit. For example, FillApp runs within Chrome and uses content scripts to understand pages and perform actions in your logged-in sessions. Extensions benefit from working where users already are (no need to leave Chrome or install a new browser) and can leverage the user's existing cookies and login sessions securely. The challenge is that extension-based agents must work within browser sandbox constraints and often need user permissions for each action. They tend to focus on productivity within the current browsing context rather than replacing the whole browsing experience.
Chatbot with Virtual Browser: A third category is exemplified by OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent (sometimes just called ChatGPT's agent mode). Here, the AI agent is accessed through a chat interface (like the ChatGPT website or app), but under the hood it spins up a virtual browser environment to perform tasks. You converse with the AI as usual, and if you ask it to do something on the web (e.g. "find this information and put it into a spreadsheet"), the agent will launch an invisible browser, navigate websites, click and scrape data, and then report back, even producing outputs like slide decks or spreadsheets. This approach leverages powerful cloud-based AI (no extension needed locally) and can handle complex multi-step requests entirely server-side. The downside is that it's a bit less interactive: you don't see the browsing in real time unless the interface provides a replay, and the agent operates in a sandbox separate from your personal browser (requiring you to log in separately within the agent if needed). It's a very flexible model (since the AI can also use tools like code interpreters or API connectors within its environment), but currently these tend to be available only to premium users and are somewhat experimental.
Built-in Browser Assistant: This category overlaps with integrated browsers but worth noting: browsers like Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Brave have added AI assistants into their existing products. Microsoft's Copilot (powered by GPT-4) appears in Edge's sidebar to answer questions and summarize pages. Opera’s Aria is a free built-in AI across Opera browsers on desktop and mobile , enabling everything from page summarization and Q&A to “agentic” tab management (you can literally tell Aria to reorganize or close tabs for you) . Brave's Leo is similarly embedded in the Brave browser, focused on privacy – it supports local models via BYOM and offers hosted Mixtral/Claude/Llama options . These built-in assistants typically help with browsing and content creation, but some are gaining agent-like capabilities (for example, Aria can execute certain browsing tasks and Opera hints at “command your tabs with agentic AI” ). The pros are convenience and privacy (especially for Brave Leo, which doesn’t even require login and anonymizes requests ), but they might be less full-featured in automation than the dedicated agents/browsers due to a focus on safe, bounded assistance.

In short, there’s a spectrum from full browser replacement to lightweight helper inside your existing browser. Now, let’s delve into the major AI browser agents of 2025, their current state (public release, beta, or preview), and how they differ in capabilities.

Market landscape at a glance (status matrix)

Product	Form factor	Model support	Availability	Focus areas
OpenAI ChatGPT Agent	Assistant-hosted (virtual computer)	OpenAI models; tools (GUI/text browser, terminal), connectors	Public for Plus/Pro/Team	Research, docs/spreadsheet creation, web tasks end-to-end
Anthropic Claude for Chrome	Chrome extension (side panel)	Claude models (Anthropic); tied to Claude account	Research preview; ~1,000 Max users initially, waitlist	Read/click/type in Chrome; routine workflow help
Perplexity Comet	New browser	Perplexity stack; Max tier	Limited rollout to Max + waitlist; Comet Plus launched	Proactive browsing, "think-as-you-browse," actions
Dia (The Browser Company → Atlassian)	New browser	AI-first browser (model details abstracted)	Invite-only beta; company acquired by Atlassian	"Chat with your tabs," memory-forward work browser
Microsoft Edge Copilot	Built-in side panel/mode	Microsoft models + M365 context	Generally available features; new Copilot Mode emerging	Page/document/video summaries; voice; tab context
Gemini in Chrome	Built-in assistant	Google Gemini	Announced/rolling out	Page-context assistance; forms & Drive integration
Opera Aria	Built-in assistant & Tab Commands	Aria stack; real-time web	Available	Natural-language tab ops (group/close/pin); chat
Brave Leo	Built-in assistant	Mixtral, Claude, Llama (free/premium choice)	Available	Private assistant with model choice
Amazon Nova Act (SDK)	Dev toolkit (browser agents)	Amazon Nova Act model via SDK	Research preview (developer-facing)	Reliable browser actions; QA/testing; automation
FillApp (Chrome)	Extension (agent in your session)	Multi-model (GPT-5, Claude 4, and other state-of-the-art models)	Public (free + paid)	Form filling, cross-tab automation, snippets, page/PDF/image summaries

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent – A Toolbox in a Chat Interface

One of the most high-profile entrants is OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent, introduced in July 2025. This agent marks a shift for ChatGPT from a pure conversationalist to an autonomous problem-solver. By switching into "agent mode" within a ChatGPT conversation, users can have the AI "think and act" using a suite of tools. Under the hood, ChatGPT Agent has a virtual computer that can browse the web visually, use a text-based web browser for quick scraping, execute code in a terminal, and call external APIs via connectors. In practice, this means you can ask for tasks like "Research my upcoming meetings and draft a briefing document" or "Find a good recipe, order the ingredients online, and put a reminder on my calendar", and the agent will orchestrate all those steps across web pages and apps.

Availability: ChatGPT's agent mode became available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Enterprise users in mid-2025. It is not enabled for free users at this time. Activating it is as simple as selecting an Agent option in the ChatGPT interface. There is no standalone OpenAI browser extension; it all runs through OpenAI's cloud platform.

Capabilities: The ChatGPT Agent is arguably one of the most powerful, because it leverages OpenAI’s top models (GPT-4 or beyond) and integrates many functionalities:

It can navigate websites and click buttons in a simulated browser, including sites that require login (the user is prompted to securely log in when needed).
It can synthesize information from multiple pages using its text-based browser and deep reading capability (this evolved from an earlier "deep research" feature OpenAI had).
It can write and execute code to manipulate or analyze data on the fly (much like the Code Interpreter plugin, now built-in).
It can output results in formats like markdown tables, or even create slide decks and spreadsheets as deliverables, something uniquely showcased by OpenAI.

Limitations: Reviewers have found that ChatGPT Agent, while groundbreaking, still feels like a "proof of concept" in some ways. It sometimes mis-clicks or gets confused by complex web interfaces (e.g. struggling with dragging a slider or playing an online chess game properly). These glitches show the challenge of bridging conversational AI with real-world web actions. Moreover, running multiple agents can be overwhelming: each spins up its own tab and you may lose track if you launch many simultaneous tasks. OpenAI's agent will always ask for user confirmation before performing sensitive actions like purchases or sending messages, which is a critical safety feature.

Pros: Extremely powerful and flexible; deep integration with ChatGPT’s knowledge and tools; no installation needed; leverages one of the most advanced AI models available with broad general knowledge.

Cons: Available only to paid users; can be slow or error-prone on web UIs; less transparent (runs on OpenAI servers, you see the results or a replay rather than live interaction); cannot directly leverage your existing browser session or personal data unless you connect accounts or provide info. Also, being a generalist, it may not have domain-specific optimizations (e.g., it might fill a form correctly, but not as instantly as a specialized tool like FillApp).

Status: As of late 2025, ChatGPT Agent is fully launched in beta to premium users. OpenAI is rapidly improving it, and it's expected to become more refined with iterations. OpenAI's ambitions go further: they are even reported to be building their own web browser to deeply integrate ChatGPT (and future models) at the browser level. In fact, Reuters reported in July that OpenAI's upcoming browser aims to challenge Google Chrome by weaving AI assistance directly into how we browse. That product, if released, would combine the agent's capabilities with direct access to user browsing activity, potentially making the AI even more context-aware. For now, the ChatGPT Agent in the ChatGPT app is the flagship of OpenAI's "browser agent" efforts.

Perplexity’s Comet – An AI Browser for “Thought-Speed” Surfing

Perplexity.ai, known for its AI answer engine, took a bold step by launching Comet, a full-fledged AI web browser, in mid-2025. Comet is described as a browser “built for today’s internet,” aiming to transform web browsing from a manual task into something more like a conversation .

Approach: Unlike a plugin, Comet is a standalone Chromium-based browser with an AI assistant at its core . You can browse normally, but at any point you can interact with Comet’s AI to ask questions, execute tasks, or summarize information. For example, if you’re shopping online, you might ask Comet “Which other site has the same product with faster shipping?”, and it will understand the context and find the answer without you opening another tab . Comet’s philosophy is “from navigation to cognition”, meaning it tries to minimize the heavy tab-juggling and searching by letting you simply “think out loud” to get things done .

Capabilities:

Conversational Browsing: You can ask Comet questions on any page. It can summarize complex content, compare information across what you’ve read, and follow your curiosity without losing context . Essentially, it’s like having a research assistant that knows what you’ve been looking at.
Workflow Execution: Comet goes beyond Q&A; it can perform actions. The team encourages users to “ask Comet to do” tasks: book a meeting, send an email, buy an item you forgot, or brief you on your day . This implies an agent capability similar to other browser agents – clicking and form submission on your behalf – integrated within the browser.
Accuracy and Citations: Perplexity has built its reputation on providing sourced answers. In Comet, they stress an “obsession with accurate and trustworthy answers” . We can expect Comet’s assistant to cite sources or use retrieval-augmented generation for factual queries, reducing hallucinations. This focus on reliability is critical when an agent is making decisions or purchases for you.
Personalization and Learning: Comet is said to learn how you think over time, personalizing its assistance . It can use the context of your past browsing (with permission) to tailor answers. For instance, it might remember what you researched yesterday to inform what to suggest today.

Availability: As of its July 2025 launch, Comet is not immediately open to everyone. It was made available first to Perplexity’s “Max” subscribers (their premium tier), with an invite-only waitlist for others . Early access rolled out slowly over the summer of 2025. In other words, it’s in a closed beta for paying users, at least initially. This cautious rollout is likely to gather feedback and ensure the new browser is stable and secure.

Pros: Deep integration allows fluid context switching and multi-step tasks in one place. Likely very strong at answering questions with sources (good for research-oriented users). Aims to save time by turning multi-app, multi-tab workflows into a single conversation . Also, being a full browser means it can eventually incorporate unique interface innovations optimized for AI (potentially better than what an add-on kludged onto Chrome could do).

Cons: Requires using a new browser – users must migrate from Chrome/Firefox/etc., which is a hurdle. At this stage it’s invite-only and only for premium users (Perplexity Max subscription), so not widely accessible. Since it’s new, there may be website compatibility issues or missing features compared to mature browsers. Additionally, running an AI assistant constantly could raise performance or privacy questions (though no specific issues are noted, it’s something users consider when their browser “actively thinks”).

Status: Comet is in beta (invite only). It represents a vision of the future browser where AI is central. Early reports show excitement but also some security scrutiny – for example, Brave’s security team found an indirect prompt injection vulnerability in Comet’s agent early on, which Perplexity quickly fixed . This highlights how new such agents are and the ongoing work to make them safe. Overall, Comet is a frontrunner in the AI-as-your-browser trend, and its progress is being closely watched by the industry.

Claude for Chrome – Anthropic’s Safe-Browsing AI Sidekick

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI model, introduced Claude for Chrome in 2025 as a browser extension that brings Claude’s capabilities into your web browsing. It's essentially Anthropic's answer to OpenAI's agent, but delivered in a Chrome sidebar instead of a chat app. Claude for Chrome can observe and act on what’s in your browser window with your permission, maintaining context across sites to help you work.

Access and Status: Claude for Chrome launched as a research preview/pilot in late August 2025 . It’s very limited: initially only 1,000 users who are on Claude’s paid Max plan (Anthropic’s highest tier, costing $100-$200/month) were invited . Others can join a waitlist, but general availability is not yet here . This cautious rollout underlines that Anthropic is treating it as an experimental feature to study and improve, especially on the safety front.

How it Works: Once enabled, Claude appears as a sidebar chat in Chrome . You can talk to it as you would in Claude’s normal interface, but now it has awareness of the current webpages you’re on. Importantly, you can grant Claude permission to take actions in the browser . For example, you might ask Claude to schedule a meeting on Google Calendar – it can click and fill in the details if you’ve allowed it access to that site. Or you could let it fill out a form, navigate through a workflow, etc., without you manually doing each step.

Claude’s strength is its large context window and reasoning. Claude 2 (released in 2023) could handle ~100K tokens of context, meaning it can read and summarize very lengthy documents or even multiple web pages. That makes Claude for Chrome a powerful research assistant – imagine opening several tabs of reports and asking Claude to synthesize a summary or comparative analysis.

Focus on Safety: Anthropic has been extremely vocal about the safety challenges of browser agents . They identified prompt injection (malicious hidden instructions in webpages or emails that trick the AI) as a key risk . In internal tests, an unmitigated Claude agent fell for nearly 24% of malicious tricks thrown at it – for instance, a hidden snippet on a page saying “delete all my emails” could have caused it to actually attempt deletion . Anthropic implemented multiple defenses (site permission scopes, confirmation prompts for risky actions, improved prompt instructions to ignore hidden text, blocking certain high-risk websites by default, etc.) and managed to cut the attack success rate by more than half . They admit it’s not perfect yet, hence the limited pilot to learn from real usage before wider release .

In practice, when using Claude for Chrome, you might notice it asking “Are you sure you want me to do X?” for something major, or it might refuse actions on banking sites or similar by design . This conservative approach is meant to build trust that an AI agent won’t run amok with your credentials.

Capabilities: With safety caveats in place, Claude for Chrome is reported to handle a variety of tasks:

Manage calendars and schedule meetings (likely via web calendar apps) .
Draft emails and routine reports (reading your email or form templates and composing responses) .
Fill out forms and handle data entry tasks (similar uses as FillApp, potentially) .
Navigate websites and even test web features (Anthropic internally used it to test their own site, hinting at QA automation use) .

Because Claude can maintain context, you can have a running dialogue about what you’re doing across multiple pages. It’s like an AI project manager sitting next to your browser session. And since it’s Claude, the language capabilities – writing fluently, summarizing – are top-notch.

Pros: Uses the Claude model known for large context and coherent replies. The extension form means it works with your existing browser and accounts, giving it an edge in personalized assistance (no separate sandbox login needed for each site). Anthropic’s emphasis on safety is reassuring, especially for enterprise users – they are identifying pitfalls (like hidden instructions) and actively defending against them .

Cons: Extremely limited availability in 2025 (effectively a closed beta for select paid users). It currently supports only Claude models, so unlike FillApp or Brave Leo which can use multiple AI models, you’re tied to what Anthropic offers. Claude also has its own quirks – for instance, it tends to refuse certain content more quickly due to Anthropic’s safety tuning, which could make it less flexible in some tasks. And while Anthropic is working on it, there’s always a residual risk that the agent could misinterpret a malicious page element – it’s cutting-edge research in progress, not yet a polished consumer tool .

Status: Claude for Chrome is in pilot (research preview). We expect Anthropic will expand access gradually as they bolster safeguards. Their goal seems not just to have an agent, but to set a standard for trustworthy agents – they’ve published principles on “trustworthy AI agents” and are likely to share learnings with the community . If and when it opens up broadly, it will be a strong competitor in the browser assistant space, especially for those who value Claude’s style of responses and its integration with Anthropic’s ecosystem.

FillApp – A Productivity-Focused Browser Agent (Form Filling & Workflow Automation)

Among the new AI agents, FillApp stands out by targeting a very practical niche: automating the countless mundane actions professionals do in a browser every day. FillApp is an AI browser agent available as a Chrome extension and web app that excels at no-code browser automation and form filling. FillApp is publicly available with a free plan, making advanced AI browser automation accessible to everyone. While many browser agents aim to be general-purpose AI assistants, FillApp focuses on productivity and efficiency, helping users complete repetitive online tasks faster and with fewer errors.

Key Differentiator – Productivity Use-Cases: FillApp’s design is informed by scenarios like:

Filling out lengthy or repetitive online forms (think job applications, CRM data entry, HR onboarding forms, travel bookings, etc.).
Executing multi-step workflows across several web apps (for example: take data from a spreadsheet, input into a web portal, submit, then update another site).
Summarizing and extracting information from pages or documents to avoid manual reading.

In essence, FillApp turns your browser into a smart assistant that “works where you work”, focusing on business/web workflow automation.

Capabilities: According to its documentation, FillApp has three primary modes of operation:

Fill Mode - Instant Form Completion: You can autofill a form with one click using either saved data or AI interpretation of a prompt. For example, you might select a form and just describe in natural language what needs to go in it ("Apply for Marketing Manager at X Corp, start date July 1, annual salary $80k") and FillApp will populate the fields accordingly. It highlights the entries before final submission so you can verify them, ensuring you remain in control. This mode is a supercharged version of traditional browser autofill. It's not limited to names and addresses, but can handle arbitrary inputs based on understanding your instruction.
Agent Mode - Multi-step Task Automation (Preview): Here you describe a broader task, and FillApp's agent will plan and execute it across multiple tabs if needed. FillApp's agent mode is currently in preview, offering users early access to advanced automation capabilities. For instance, "Go to site A, extract data X, then log in to site B and submit that data" can be done autonomously. The agent uses your logged-in sessions (no need to provide credentials externally) and visibly carries out each step in the browser with a moving cursor. This mode is about workflow automation, saving you from repetitive clickwork across systems. FillApp shows a visible trace and allows pausing, so you can intervene if something looks off. It's like programming a macro, but in plain English via AI.
Assist Mode - On-Page AI Insights: In this mode, FillApp acts more like a reading assistant. It can summarize the current web page, a PDF, or even an image, and answer questions about that content. If you're on a long article or a data-heavy page, you can quickly ask FillApp for the key points. It essentially brings ChatGPT-style summarization and Q&A into any page you're viewing, which boosts productivity by cutting down time spent skimming or copy-pasting text to ask questions elsewhere.

Beyond these modes, FillApp brings some unique productivity features:

Reusable Snippets: You can save common data (addresses, company info, product SKUs, answers to form questions, etc.) as snippets and reuse them easily. By typing an @SnippetName in your prompt, the agent will insert the predefined data. This ensures consistency (no more typing the same info over and over) and speeds up form filling dramatically. For example, @homeAddress could instantly fill multiple address fields, or a snippet for "Quarterly Report Stats" could be used across different submissions.
Context Awareness & Multi-Tab: FillApp's agent understands what's in your active tabs and can switch between them to complete tasks. It runs in your logged-in session, meaning it can use your authenticated Salesforce dashboard or internal tools without any special integration. This is powerful for enterprise users: if you're already signed in to various work apps, the AI can utilize those sessions directly.
Visible Execution and Confirmation: Every action the agent takes is visible: you see the mouse cursor moving and fields being highlighted/populated on your screen. This builds trust because you're not guessing what the AI is doing in the background; you can observe and stop it anytime. FillApp has an option to require confirmation for sensitive actions like clicking a "Submit" or "Delete" button, adding a layer of safety.
Data Extraction (PDF/Image Analysis): It can read PDFs or images for you and pull out data, which can then be used in form filling. Think about extracting an invoice number from a PDF and pasting it into a payment form: FillApp can streamline that.

Pros: FillApp's focused feature set yields tangible productivity gains. Users report saving hours on tasks like applying to many startup programs or posting job listings across sites. By combining AI understanding with on-screen execution, it removes the tedium of repetitive typing without requiring technical skills (it's all no-code and natural language). The snippet system is a standout feature for consistency and speed. Another big plus: FillApp is model-agnostic and supports state-of-the-art models. Under the hood it uses models like GPT-5, Claude 4, and other cutting-edge models, whichever suits the task. This means users aren't locked to one AI backend; as new models emerge, FillApp incorporates them to improve quality or offer choices (for example, a user might pick a more verbose model for summarization but a faster one for form fill suggestions).

Cons: Being an extension, FillApp currently focuses on Chrome as its primary platform, with support for Edge, Safari, and Firefox announced for upcoming months. Its specialization means it doesn't write marketing copy or code applications from scratch (tasks a general AI might do), but that's by design. It focuses on web automation, not every creative endeavor. Also, while it's available for free to start (the Chrome extension can be added for free), heavy users or teams will likely need a paid plan for higher usage, especially when using premium models like GPT-5 which incur costs. Finally, like any powerful tool, there's a learning curve in phrasing tasks for optimal results (e.g. learning to describe form intents succinctly, or setting up your snippets initially).

Availability: FillApp is publicly available: you can install the Chrome extension from the web store and use it right away (with the free tier allowing basic usage). It emerged from a private beta (where it was tested on 120+ different web platforms) and by 2025 it's openly released. The company offers a web app companion for managing snippets and viewing usage history, and subscription plans for pro features or higher volumes. FillApp has differentiated itself from the more generalist AI agents by focusing on what it does best: saving time on routine browser tasks.

Arc’s Dia and Other AI-First Browsers – Chatting with Your Tabs

We touched on Perplexity’s Comet as an AI-centric browser. Another notable entry is Dia, developed by The Browser Company (makers of the Arc browser). Dia is an AI-first browser that launched in beta in June 2025 . The concept of Dia is slightly different: where Comet still feels like a traditional browser enhanced with an assistant, Dia treats the AI as the primary interface for many interactions. In Dia:

The address bar doubles as a chat box with the AI . You can type natural language requests into what normally is the URL/search bar. If you type a website name or query, it works normally, but you can also ask things like “What are my open tabs about?” or “Draft an email to John summarizing these two tabs,” and the AI will respond or act.
You can ask questions about your open tabs – Dia’s agent can read all your open pages and answer queries that span them . For example, if you have two articles open, you could ask “compare the main points of these two articles” and Dia will use both tabs as context.
It can summarize files you upload and handle a mix of search vs chat automatically . If you ask a factual question, it might search the web; if you ask for a rewrite of a page’s text, it chats.
Personalization is key: you “talk” to Dia’s chatbot to set preferences, like tone or writing style . Over time it also uses browsing history (opt-in for 7 days) to tailor answers to your interests .
Arc introduced a feature called “Skills” – essentially mini-scripts the AI can create to customize the browser or automate something . Users can ask the AI to code a little function (like rearrange tabs in a certain layout, or extract certain info from pages) and Dia will generate the code for that browser automation. This is a novel take, blending user scripting with AI for those with specific needs.

Status: Dia is in invite-only beta as well . Arc browser users got early access, and invites gradually allowed more people. It’s built on Chromium, so it retains a familiar browsing core . The AI model behind Dia hasn’t been officially stated, but it likely leverages OpenAI’s or a similar leading model through a partnership, given the Browser Company’s scale (they are not known for their own LLMs). It’s cloud-based like others, not on-device.

Pros: Dia offers a very seamless AI experience – no need to think “now I go to a separate chat window”; the AI is wherever you need it (the URL bar, a chat panel, etc.). For Arc fans, it’s an upgrade that doesn’t require leaving their beloved browser UI. Features like using your history as context and multi-tab questioning make it extremely useful for research and cross-referencing tasks (like a personal research assistant that remembers what you’ve been reading all week). It’s also aiming to cut out extra steps: instead of visiting ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude websites separately, users can get those benefits directly in the browser .

Cons: Since Dia is essentially Arc 2.0, it inherits Arc’s challenge – Arc never hit mass adoption beyond tech enthusiasts . Its unique interface had a learning curve that casual users avoided . If Dia similarly requires people to change their browsing habits significantly, it may face user friction. Additionally, early feedback (from some users on forums) indicated that Dia at launch was more like an integrated chatbot than a fully autonomous agent – meaning it was great at Q&A and summaries, but not as “agentic” in performing complex multi-step web tasks as, say, ChatGPT Agent or FillApp’s workflow mode. This might evolve with updates, but as one commentator noted, Dia felt like “a basic chatbot instead of a context-aware agent” in its initial release . The product is new, so it will improve, but it’s worth tempering expectations: not every AI browser will immediately be doing automated purchases and intricate operations – some, like Dia, start by focusing on enhancing browsing and writing, and may add more agentic features over time.

Other AI-Infused Browsers: It’s notable that even established browsers have rushed to add AI:

Opera’s Aria (discussed earlier) is available to all Opera users for free, offering real-time web-connected answers, content generation (even image generation via integrated DALL-E or similar), and agent-like tab commands . Opera has been steadily adding features, turning Aria into a versatile assistant that can even mimic writing style and handle coding help .
Brave's Leo is another example of an existing browser integrating AI. It launched in late 2023 and has since grown. Brave took a privacy-first route: Leo supports local models via BYOM and offers hosted Mixtral/Claude/Llama options by default to avoid sending data out . It can summarize pages, answer questions, and generate text, all without tracking the user. Brave later introduced a premium tier where for $15/month, users can access larger models and even Claude Instant from Anthropic for more powerful assistance . This is interesting because Brave essentially offers multiple AI models (small ones for free, big ones for paid) right in the browser – a strategy to cater to both privacy-conscious users and those who want top-tier AI quality. Brave’s approach underscores how important AI is becoming in browser competition; even a privacy-focused company is carefully integrating it to enhance user experience.
Microsoft & Google: Microsoft Edge's sidebar AI (Copilot) and Google's efforts with Bard/Gemini deserve mention even if they're not standalone agents. Copilot since early 2023 has been a mainstream way for millions to get AI help while browsing (especially for search queries and page summaries). Google, not to be outdone, has been experimenting with integrating their next-gen model Gemini into Chrome . By late 2025, we’re seeing features in Chrome (via Google’s Search Generative Experience and Bard integration in the browser) that let users generate page summaries or ask follow-ups right from the address bar or the Chrome side panel. These moves by the “big two” browsers validate the trend: having an AI helper in the browser is likely to become a standard feature. Google and Microsoft also ensure these AI remain somewhat in check – for instance, Bing’s agent won’t click around your private accounts by itself; it’s mostly a read-only copilot unless you interact. But given Google’s development of Gemini, a highly multimodal and powerful model, we anticipate Chrome will eventually allow more agent-like behaviors (with user permission), especially if startups and competitors prove users want that functionality.

Comparing Approaches: Autonomy vs Assistance, Generalist vs Specialist

It’s clear that the landscape of AI browser agents in 2025 is diverse. Here we compare some of the key dimensions across the solutions:

Level of Autonomy: There's a spectrum from assistant to agent. Assistant-style integrations (Brave Leo, Opera Aria, early Dia) focus on helping the user by providing information or light automation (like closing tabs or summarizing text) when asked. True agent-style systems (OpenAI's Agent, FillApp's workflow mode, Claude for Chrome, Perplexity Comet) can take a high-level goal and initiate a sequence of actions to accomplish it with minimal further user input. With autonomy comes the need for more safety checks. FillApp and Claude explicitly confirm before critical steps; ChatGPT Agent asks permission for anything high-impact. A fully autonomous agent (where you just say "do X" and it does X, Y, Z on its own) is incredibly powerful but potentially risky. Most offerings now strike a balance: they automate multi-step tasks but keep the user in the loop for oversight.
Use of Personal Context: Solutions embedded in your actual browser (FillApp, Claude for Chrome, Aria, Leo, Dia) have access to what you're currently seeing and sometimes your past browsing context. This makes them feel very personalized: they can, for example, summarize that specific dashboard you have open or use info from your previous tab to inform the next action. ChatGPT Agent, in contrast, starts with zero personal context except what you explicitly provide or authorize via connectors. Comet lies in between: as a full browser it can have context of your session, but since it's a new browser you start fresh with it. The trend is moving toward agents that leverage user context more deeply, as long as privacy can be managed. FillApp's approach of running "where you already work" (using logged-in sessions without exporting data out) is a user-friendly model, whereas cloud agents needing you to log in again might feel sandboxed.
Model Backend and Flexibility: This is a subtle but important point for savvy users or enterprise buyers. Which AI model is powering the agent? OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent uses (presumably) GPT-4 or GPT-4.5 (and likely GPT-5 soon), basically the best OpenAI has. Claude for Chrome uses Claude 2 (and future Claude updates). Bing uses OpenAI's models (with Bing's tuning), Bard uses Google's models (PaLM, now Gemini). These are all single-provider, closed models. FillApp and Brave are notable for a more open, hybrid approach. FillApp supports all state-of-the-art models, including GPT-5, Claude 4, and other cutting-edge models. Users can select a model or FillApp automatically picks the best one for a task. Brave Leo free uses an open model (Llama 2) and premium adds Anthropic's model as well. The benefit of multi-model support is flexibility and resilience: if one model is weak at a certain task, another might handle it better. It also can address cost concerns (use cheaper models for easy tasks, expensive ones for complex tasks). From a "state of the industry" perspective, we see a split: the big players tie you into their model ecosystem, while some newer entrants try to be model-agnostic.
Public vs Private Availability: As we detailed, some agents are widely available now (e.g. Opera Aria to anyone, Brave Leo to anyone, FillApp's extension to anyone, Microsoft Copilot to the public), while others are gated (ChatGPT Agent to paid users, Comet to invitees, Claude to waitlist, Dia to invitees). This means if you’re evaluating solutions for immediate use, your options are slightly narrower. However, the rapid pace suggests that in the next 6-12 months, many “preview” agents will open up. For instance, if Claude for Chrome’s pilot goes well, Anthropic will likely roll it out to all Claude users (perhaps even standard Claude 2 users beyond just Max). OpenAI’s standalone browser might launch publicly, removing the invite barrier. So 2025 is a year where the previews are turning into products.
Platform Support: Most of these agents are focusing on desktop web (Chrome desktop, custom desktop browsers). Opera Aria is one of the few explicitly available on mobile as well. ChatGPT's agent could theoretically work on the ChatGPT mobile app. Extension-based solutions like Claude for Chrome currently focus on desktop browsers. This will be important for widespread adoption because a large chunk of browsing time is on phones.
Pros & Cons Summary: To wrap this comparison, here’s a quick list of pros and cons of browser agents vs. traditional browsing:
- Pros: Saves time on multi-step tasks, reduces manual data entry (FillApp reports forms done in seconds that took minutes before); can handle information overload by summarizing pages; useful for accessibility (reading content aloud, explaining jargon, Opera's Aria even reads answers aloud for users who prefer to listen); could perform actions when you're away (future potential for truly autonomous agents handling tasks overnight, though most current ones still require you to supervise to some degree).
- Cons: Still error-prone in early stages (e.g. clicking wrong buttons); requires deep trust: these agents might see sensitive info, so security and privacy safeguards are paramount; potential impact on websites (if agents block ads or behave like non-human traffic, this could disrupt the web's economic model, a topic outside our scope but interesting: Wired mused that a web full of AI "ghost" browsers skipping ads could push advertisers away). Users also have to learn new workflows and not everyone may feel comfortable delegating critical tasks to AI yet, especially without double-checking.

The Road Ahead

The flurry of activity in 2025 around AI browser agents suggests that we are at an inflection point. Browsing the web is transforming from a manual activity (point, click, type) to a higher-level orchestration (tell the AI what you need and supervise). It's a change on par with the introduction of graphical browsers in the 90s or mobile browsing in the 2000s: a new paradigm of interaction.

Big Players Are All In: OpenAI's commitment is clear with ChatGPT Agent and the likely upcoming browser. Microsoft has integrated AI into Windows (Copilot) and Edge: we might see further merging of those, where the same copilot that can edit your documents can also book your flight on the web. Google's Gemini, once fully deployed, could make Chrome extremely smart at understanding user intent ("find me a code snippet on StackOverflow and integrate it with the docs I have open"). Anthropic, with heavy investment, is tackling the hard problem of safe autonomy, which will benefit everyone building similar tech. And notably, Amazon entered the fray in 2025 by announcing Nova Act, a toolkit and model for browser-based agents. Amazon's approach is more developer-focused (providing the tools for others to create agents for specific workflows), but it validates the idea that autonomous web-task AIs are valuable in enterprise settings, e.g., automating internal web apps, handling support tickets, etc., without APIs. When virtually every tech giant, from Google to Amazon, plus countless startups are betting on a concept, it's a sign that AI browser agents (or "web agents") will become a regular part of computing.

Challenges to Overcome: While the momentum is strong, there are challenges:

Robustness: Web UIs vary wildly. Agents need to handle everything from a simple text field to complex drag-and-drop interfaces reliably. They've gotten better (some use vision, DOM analysis, and language combined to understand pages), but we saw even ChatGPT Agent stumble on something like a chess interface. This will improve with model training (e.g., Amazon claims Nova Act is trained to better handle things like dropdown menus and date pickers that trip up others).
Safety & Ethics: We discussed prompt injection and malicious content. There's also the concern of these agents being used maliciously (an agent that can browse and execute could be pointed to do nefarious things if not safeguarded). Companies are implementing permission systems, domain restrictions, and monitoring. Expect this to be a continuous tug-of-war with exploits: similar to antivirus vs malware evolution, AI agents will need ever-evolving defenses.
User Trust & Adoption: Many people are understandably cautious about letting an AI click or type for them. Building trust through transparency (like FillApp's visible highlights and Anthropic's confirmations) and reliability will be key. Early adopters (power users, tech enthusiasts, certain professionals) are on board, but mainstream users might take convincing. Clear benefits (saving time, doing things you can't easily do yourself) will drive adoption. It may start in workplace settings where productivity gains are easily quantifiable, then spread to general use.
Web Ecosystem Reaction: If agents become dominant, websites might adapt by changing interfaces or offering agent-friendly APIs (or conversely, trying to block bot traffic). There’s a parallel to how SEO and web design changed when search engines rose; similarly, “AI-agent optimization” could become a thing for web developers (ensuring your site content is easy for AI agents to parse and act on, so that your service isn’t bypassed or misused by them). This is speculative, but it’s a space to watch. For instance, sites might include meta tags or schemas for agents (like indicating which elements are safe to click or which text is instructions vs content), or browser makers might standardize some “agent mode” protocols.

Conclusion: The state of AI browser agents in 2025 is one of rapid innovation and early competition. You have a mix of:

Established browser companies adding AI to stay relevant (Opera, Brave, Microsoft, Google).
AI-focused companies extending into the browser domain (OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity).
New startups (like FillApp, Arc’s team with Dia, etc.) carving niches and often focusing on specific strengths like productivity or user experience.

For investors and researchers, this space is exciting because it touches on mass-market software (browsers) and injects them with cutting-edge AI, potentially changing how billions of people use the internet. A browser agent might become as indispensable as the browser’s address bar or back button – a standard tool we expect when we go online.

For users, the promise is a web that feels less like work and more like telling a savvy assistant what you need. Instead of drowning in tabs and forms, you have help at hand. FillApp's user who filled 20 applications in an evening that would have taken days manually, or the person who has Claude scheduling their meetings, are early examples of how workflows can change. As these agents mature, we'll likely see more "20-minute tasks done in 2 minutes" success stories.

In summary, AI browser agents are here, and while not all are fully polished, they are rapidly improving. Whether embedded in a new browser or augmenting your current one, they aim to make our online lives more efficient. Each has its trade-offs, but collectively they point to a near future where interacting with the web is less about clicking and more about conversing, delegating, and collaborating with an AI. The companies that strike the right balance of capability, safety, and user-friendliness will lead the charge. With its focus on practical automation and multi-model support, FillApp is positioned as a strong contender on the productivity end of this spectrum, bringing immediate, tangible benefits to those drowning in web forms and routine tasks. It's an exciting time as we watch these tools evolve from beta experiments to everyday essentials, transforming the browser into something much smarter than the passive window to the internet we've known.

Sources

OpenAI — Introducing ChatGPT Agent: https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-agent/
Anthropic — Piloting Claude for Chrome: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-chrome
Anthropic Help — Getting Started with Claude for Chrome: https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/12012173-getting-started-with-claude-for-chrome
Perplexity — Introducing Comet: https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-comet
Dia Browser: https://www.diabrowser.com/
Microsoft — Copilot in Edge: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/edge
Google — Gemini in Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome/ai-innovations/
Opera — Aria AI Tab Commands: https://www.opera.com/features/ai-tab-commands
Brave — Leo: https://brave.com/leo/
Amazon — Nova Act (SDK): https://labs.amazon.science/blog/nova-act
FillApp — Product & features: https://fillapp.ai/