Pretty much every major browser company has jumped onto the bandwagon of integrating AI into their browser in some way or the other, and frankly, I’m all here for it. I’m not talking about browsers with AI features here and there. I’m talking about full-fledged browsers that are built with AI at their core. Some big names are Perplexity’s Comet, Opera’s Neon, and one you’ve surely heard of by now: ChatGPT’s Atlas.

While Atlas seems to be many people’s first introduction to AI browsers, since it’s free to use and, well, it’s an OpenAI product, I’ve been testing AI browsers since the first full-fledged AI browser, Opera Neon, was announced. I’ve since tried every AI browser that I’ve come across, and I genuinely can’t imagine using an AI browser in 2025. They’re filled with practical AI features that I find myself reaching for, and there are multiple ways they’ve made my life a lot easier.

Cutting down on browser clutter

Because you don’t need a new tab for every thought

Browsers have fundamentally always forced us to juggle multiple tabs. Even if you want to get a very basic task done, it’s practically impossible to complete it in just one tab. Want to search for a simple definition while writing an email? Open a new tab. Need to fact-check something for a report? Open another tab. AI browsers finally change that approach.

All the AI browsers I’ve tried so far come with a built-in side panel or assistant that stays accessible no matter which tab you’re on. This lets you ask questions, pull information, and perform research without ever leaving your current page. Of course, I know better than to trust AI with research or fact-checking.

However, if you want to quickly get a definition, summarize an article, or clarify a concept, the side panel makes it incredibly convenient. The best part is you can use the assistant across multiple tabs, and it stays individual to each tab. So, your questions, notes, or research in one tab won’t get mixed up with another.

Automating redundant tasks so I don’t have to do them

Work smarter, not manually

The biggest reason why people are so anti-AI is because they think it’s going to replace them. The counterargument to that is always that AI’s meant to be a tool to aid you, and that couldn’t be truer in my experience. For me, AI browsers are exactly that. They’re a way to offload the repetitive (and boring) tasks I’d normally have to do myself. Sure, some might think that’s lazy of me. But if an AI agent can execute the task perfectly well in the background while I work on something else, what’s the harm in letting it handle the boring stuff?

For instance, something I do every Monday morning is add all my work tasks for the week to Google Tasks (so they’re automatically added to my calendar too). It’s a repetitive task, and I could probably do it with my eyes closed. Given I have both work and college tasks to add, it can easily take 10–15 minutes every Monday just to populate my calendar. Thanks to an AI browser, I’ve automated this process entirely. My work tasks are typically assigned on Asana and Trello, and since I’m logged into both in my browser, I simply ask the AI to add every task due in the coming week from each app to my Google Tasks Work list.

I just check in at the end to ensure everything landed correctly, saving myself at least 10–15 minutes every week and a small but meaningful chunk of mental effort. There have been a few times where the AI has left the task name empty, so I just ask it to fill in the missing details. All of this happens in the background, and I get notified when everything is ready.

Replacing my calendar scheduling tool

I loved Reclaim… until I didn’t

One of the very first AI tools I tried and integrated into my daily workflow is Reclaim. It’s an AI calendar scheduling tool that can automatically block out time for your tasks based on your task list, availability, deadlines, and the priority of your tasks. It’s a great tool, and up until a few days ago, I used it daily. Pairing NotebookLM and my AI browser has practically replaced my need for Reclaim.

And there’s one major reason why I decided to stop using Reclaim, even though it was working quite well for me: Reclaim currently can’t analyze your previous patterns and adjust your schedule intelligently based on how you actually work. This is where NotebookLM steps in. I simply upload my calendar data, which includes the time I’ve actually spent on tasks in the past.

I also let the tool know the tasks I need to do now (which the AI browser’s built-in AI lists down for me), and it analyzes my previous data and upcoming tasks to create an optimized schedule. It suggests the best time blocks for each task, balances my workload, and even flags potential conflicts.

NotebookLM doesn’t have agentic abilities, so it can’t actually move tasks around or update my calendar on its own. That’s where my AI browser comes in. It takes NotebookLM’s optimized schedule and handles the rest for me!

Making YouTube viewing smarter

Goodbye mindless watching

The biggest reason why AI browsers stand out to me is because of how easy they make watching YouTube. I simply can’t imagine watching YouTube in a regular browser anymore. Before I used AI browsers to watch YouTube videos, I relied on NotebookLM since it let me interact with the video without hallucinating as much as other AI tools. Since NotebookLM is a source-grounded tool, it would only reference the video transcript I uploaded, which made it extremely easy to interact with a video and see what it was about without sitting through the whole thing.

However, that came at the cost of the actual YouTube watching experience — NotebookLM doesn’t even let you view the video! With AI browsers, you can do everything you could in NotebookLM, and more. Similar to NotebookLM, you can ask any questions, clear doubts, and get summaries. But unlike NotebookLM, you can still watch the full video and interact with it in a way that actually feels like watching YouTube (just in a more efficient way).

Here’s the best part though. There have been countless times when I’ve come across a short clip on social media and wanted to find the full video on YouTube. With an AI browser, I can simply describe the moment or scene I remember, and the built-in assistant can locate the video for me using its AI capabilities.

At the end of the day, if I don’t want to use the AI features while watching a video, I can simply press play and watch it like I would in a regular browser. The AI tools are there when I need them, but they never get in the way of the actual viewing experience.

Bonus: Managing and organizing open tabs efficiently

Finding the tab you need, instantly

AI browsers help with browser clutter in more ways than just reducing the number of tabs. They also make it easier to manage and organize your open tabs, so you can quickly find what you need, keep related tabs together, and avoid losing track of important information.

While this doesn’t work on Opera’s Neon yet and the assistant sometimes ends up closing the tab it’s running the task on, the feature is much more polished on ChatGPT’s Atlas and Perplexity’s Comet. Even though this piece is focused on Neon, it’s simply too great not to mention.

For instance, since Perplexity is the default search engine on Comet, I often have a bunch of Perplexity tabs open at once. Instead of closing each tab manually and risking accidentally closing an important one, I simply ask Comet’s assistant to close all Perplexity tabs. The same goes for ChatGPT’s Atlas, and the process feels noticeably faster in Atlas than Comet.

Let your browser do all the heavy lifitng

Before I tried out an AI browser myself, my expectations were honestly, not that high. I assumed it’d be the same browser I already use with a sprinkle of AI buzzwords. I’m glad that didn’t end up being the case, and it genuinely surprised me with how much AI browsers could take off my plate.