OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, intends to unveil its own artificial intelligence-based web browser in the coming weeks. The new tool is expected to go beyond classic browsing – its interface will resemble a ChatGPT conversation, and information is to be presented without the need to click on links. This is a clear indication that OpenAI wants to redefine the way users interact with online content.
OpenAI’s plans are part of a wider trend of ‘AI agents’ that don’t just search for content, but process, summarise and present it in a user-friendly form. Unlike Google, whose model is based on providing a list of links, OpenAI aims to provide answers directly – direct, concise, contextual.
If the OpenAI browser gains even a fraction of the popularity of ChatGPT, which attracts around 400 million active users per week, this could impact on a significant source of revenue for Alphabet. The Chrome browser, which dominates the market with a share of more than 60%, is a key channel for collecting user data that feeds Google’s advertising ecosystem. The introduction of a competing tool that not only aggregates information, but at the same time limits a user’s contact with external sites (and thus with ads), could disrupt this model.
In this context, the OpenAI browser is not simply another technology experiment. It is a move that could shift the focus of the entire advertising and content search industry. Google, working in parallel on its own solutions based on generative AI, faces a real threat today – not so much from the technology itself, but from changing user habits.
In the long term, this means a shift from ‘search’ to ‘getting things done by AI’. In this puzzle, the browser becomes not just a tool for accessing the web, but a personal assistant that filters and interprets information in real time. And this changes the rules of the game.
