In this section I review one AI-powered application and demonstrate how it can be used to create new value.
Here's a real scenario that brought Comet into my workflow. My wife is an artist who wanted to start selling work through Fine Art America. The platform rewards community engagement — comments and forum participation drive visibility. But navigating vast forums to identify relevant conversations is time-consuming and often fruitless.
Using Perplexity's Comet browser, within minutes the AI analyzed forum discussions, identified relevant threads by medium and style, summarized active conversations, and suggested engagement opportunities with tailored talking points. This isn't browsing as we've known it. This is browsing transformed — and it's happening now, not theoretically.
What Comet Is
Comet is an AI-native Chromium-based browser from Perplexity AI, launched July 2025 as part of the Perplexity Max premium tier ($200/month). It became free for everyone in October 2025. Available on macOS, Windows, and Android.
It operates in two modes:
The Assistant reads pages alongside you. It summarizes content, answers questions about what's visible, and maintains awareness across multiple tabs. Think of it as a knowledgeable colleague looking over your shoulder while you research.
The Agent acts autonomously. It navigates websites, clicks links, follows threads, fills forms, and compares products across sites. Complex tasks trigger Autopilot mode where Comet browses independently, asking your permission only for sensitive actions like purchases or form submissions.
What Makes It Strong
Contextual intelligence. This is qualitatively different from searching. Comet reads actual forum pages, understands your profile and context, grasps social dynamics within communities, identifies trending conversations, and makes contextual suggestions. It's not keyword matching — it's comprehension.
A genuine free tier. Agent mode — Comet's most powerful feature — is free. OpenAI's Atlas needs a Plus subscription. Google Chrome Auto Browse needs AI Pro. Google's Gemini integration requires subscriptions. Comet's free agentic browsing is a significant competitive advantage for anyone wanting to try AI-powered browsing without commitment.
Cross-tab awareness. When researching across multiple sites, Comet synthesizes information from all open tabs. This is genuinely valuable for vendor comparisons, competitive analysis, and market research where you're bouncing between sources.
Native integration. No API setup, development environment, or new tool to learn. You browse normally, and AI is available when you need it.
What Gives Me Pause
Privacy. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas acknowledged the browser partly aims to collect browsing data to understand users better. You're granting Perplexity visibility into everything you browse. Acceptable for personal research. Concerning for confidential business browsing. Know what you're trading.
Security. This is early-stage software with real vulnerabilities. Brave's security team published research on indirect prompt injection attacks against Comet. Zenity Labs showed malicious calendar invitations could hijack the browser and steal credentials. LayerX found Comet significantly more vulnerable to phishing than Chrome. These issues will likely improve, but they're relevant today.
Chrome extension limitations. Limited extension ecosystem. Some sites behave differently. If your workflow depends heavily on Chrome extensions, switching requires careful evaluation.
The Broader AI Browser Landscape
Every major AI company is now competing for browser ownership, each with a different strategy:
New browsers from scratch. Perplexity's Comet and OpenAI's Atlas (October 2025, macOS-only) bet that optimal AI browsing requires building from the ground up. Startups like Strawberry Browser are pursuing fully agentic approaches.
AI layered onto existing browsers. Google's Chrome Auto Browse (January 2026) integrates Gemini for browsing, form-filling, and multi-step tasks within Chrome. Microsoft's Copilot Mode in Edge follows a similar path. The distribution advantage here is massive: Chrome has 3+ billion users. Nobody switches browsers easily. AI appears where people already are.
Browser extensions. Anthropic's Claude in Chrome brings Claude capabilities — including navigation and clicking — as an extension. Zero switching costs. The trade-off: extensions face inherent Chrome limitations.
Developer tools. Anthropic's Computer Use API and Amazon's Nova Act SDK let developers build custom browser agents. These aren't consumer products — they're infrastructure for teams needing custom automation integrated into specific workflows.
My Prediction
Most people won't switch browsers. Chrome and Edge integrations will reach billions through sheer distribution. Standalone AI browsers like Comet and Atlas are where the ambitious experiments happen — and where innovations are born before they eventually appear everywhere.
Your action step
Download Comet (it's free) and navigate to a site you use regularly for research — forums, competitive intelligence, job boards, industry databases. Ask Comet to analyze and summarize what it finds. Then try the same task in Chrome with Gemini or Claude's extension. Where you notice differences will reveal what matters most in your browsing workflow — and whether AI-native browsing is worth the privacy trade-off for your use case.