The AI browser wars are heating up. Google has Gemini in Chrome, Perplexity is building its Comet AI browser, and The Browser Company just got acquired by Atlassian for $610 million. Now, Microsoft wants to be part of the AI browser conversation.
I sat down with Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman today to talk about the future of Edge, and why Microsoft is betting on its experimental Copilot Mode that controls your tabs and makes restaurant bookings.
Suleyman says Microsoft’s path is to evolve the browser and AI tools it has today — turning Edge into something AI can control directly. “I think the browser is just going to evolve to become a true agentic browser,” says Suleyman in an interview with Notepad. “Your AI will be able to use all of the same tools that you use in the browser.” That means Copilot opening new tabs, navigating to them, and reading the content of multiple tabs at the same time — all while you sit there and watch it complete tasks for you.
“It’s almost like having a little angel on your shoulder doing the boring hard work of reading reviews, doing price comparisons, synthesizing research, but instead of it happening away from you, you can actually see it in real time unfolding before your eyes,” says Suleyman.
Microsoft isn’t planning to create an overhauled AI web browser like The Browser Company has tried to do with Dia. “There isn’t going to be a new browser; this is just going to be one experience,” says Suleyman. “I think it’s quite a distinct and very powerful experience, to bring Copilot to where you’re already at rather than having to create a new browser.”
Weaving Copilot more closely into Edge, instead of totally overhauling the browser, seems like a logical move for Microsoft given its Windows user base and the fact Edge is still far behind Chrome in adoption. It may also allow Microsoft to better compete with OpenAI’s rumored AI web browser, all while providing some transparency around what AI agents are actually doing.
“Copilot is going to go off and aggregate tabs, spawn new instances, click on the buttons, do the research, and you can kind of watch the game unfold and intervene occasionally when you want to,” says Suleyman. “You’ll always be in control, and I think the transparency creates trust.”
This method of having Copilot visit websites for you, while you watch, also means that publishers still get visits from a regular browser. “It’s all born out of trying to create a more trusted AI companion, and also recognizing that there’s a lot of information on the open web and at source with publishers that’s very useful and important and will continue,” says Suleyman. “So maybe you’re not going to do the browsing as much, but your AI is going to do it for you and take traffic to those websites.”
This all sounds similar to what Perplexity is trying to do with Comet, or Google’s ambitions for Gemini in its Chrome browser. Suleyman thinks Microsoft is ahead of the competition, though. “We’ve been very deliberate and careful, and that’s going to pay dividends because we have a whole set of features that no one else on the market has today,” says Suleyman. “I think we’re actually way ahead.”
Copilot can navigate to tabs, scroll down pages, and highlight content on websites. “No one has that at the moment, and I think that’s a quite special feature,” says Suleyman.
While this all sounds futuristic and “magical” (as Suleyman puts it) if it actually works well, Microsoft won’t make this AI mode mandatory. There will always be an option to turn these AI features off for those who simply don’t want them. “We’re going to definitely keep evolving the browser as it is,” says Suleyman. “It’s still a huge experience that many millions of people use and love, and we love it too and we’ll keep developing it.”
Over the next few weeks, Microsoft is going to share more of the work it’s doing to bring more AI features to Edge. At a recent town hall, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed there would be a “consumer moment” in the fall, so I’m expecting a lot more Copilot news in the coming weeks.
The bigger question is whether the browser will even continue to exist if AI agents get intelligent and reliable enough to do browsing on your behalf every day. “Your AI companion will use all the tools that you used to use — operating systems, apps, browsers, search engines — but you will mostly use your AI companion because it’s going to be able to do everything you can do in a browser and on your PC,” says Suleyman. “In a few years’ time it will be doing all the work for you, and you’ll be passively overseeing it, steering it, giving feedback. I think it’s going to be a magical experience and a lot of people will choose to move to that.”
- Microsoft is raising prices on Xbox consoles in the US again. The Xbox Series X will be priced at $649.99 in the US starting October 3rd, up from its existing $599.99 price. The Xbox Series S will move to $399.99, up from $379.99. Microsoft blames the price hikes on “changes in the macroeconomic environment,” which is a lot of words to say: tariffs. These latest price increases mean the Xbox Series X has increased in price in the US by $150 and the Series S by $100 in just six months.
- Windows 11 is adding another Copilot button nobody asked for. Microsoft loves putting a Copilot in Windows apps, and now another one is coming to the taskbar. The latest Windows 11 test builds include a “share with Copilot” button that appears when you hover over Microsoft Edge in the taskbar. There are already Copilot buttons in Paint, Notepad, and even on keyboards and PCs. I’m anxiously awaiting where the Copilot button goes next.
- Microsoft is filling Teams with AI agents. Microsoft is adding AI agents to every Teams channel or meeting. It’s part of a push for Microsoft 365 Copilot users to get facilitator agents that will sit in on Teams meetings, create agendas, take notes, and answer questions. With Agent 365 on the horizon, I’d expect we’re going to see a lot more AI agents in Microsoft 365 in the coming months.
- Amazon, Google, and Microsoft warn employees to rush back to the US. Microsoft was part of a group of employers that responded quickly to new restrictions and fees on work visas over the weekend. Sources tell me the situation created a lot of panic internally for H-1B visa holders, particularly ones who were about to travel abroad or who were already on vacation. Some rushed home based on Microsoft’s guidance, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was forced to clarify the Trump administration’s guidance to try and calm workers and companies that they wouldn’t be charged $100,000 upon reentry and could continue to travel as normal.
- Windows 11 is getting a video wallpaper feature. Microsoft has started testing the ability to use video wallpapers on Windows 11. The feature has been spotted in the latest builds of Windows 11, and allows you to set video files like MP4 or MKV as your desktop wallpaper background. Microsoft previously supported video wallpapers in Windows Vista as a DreamScene feature for the Ultimate version of the operating system, but DreamScene was dropped from Windows 7. This new feature is similar to Wallpaper Engine, but it lacks the customization you get from that third-party app.
- Microsoft’s Windows AI Lab is a new way to test experimental features. Microsoft is starting to test experimental AI-powered features through a new Windows AI Labs program. References to this new program were spotted last week, and Microsoft has now confirmed to The Verge that the program is designed to provide early access to new AI features across Windows. The first set of features should start appearing in Microsoft Paint soon.
- Here’s a first look at Kojima’s OD Xbox game. Hideo Kojima first announced he was teaming up with Xbox for a new game in 2022, before a teaser revealed the OD name and some cast last year. We’re now getting a better look at exactly what OD is, in a new three-minute teaser trailer that holds true to Kojima’s promise that the game will be unique and immersive. The trailer makes it clear that OD will very much lean into horror for its gameplay, but we still don’t know when the game will debut. “Kojima is innovating in gameplay, story, and player engagement,” says Xbox chief Phil Spencer. “We’re collaborating closely, and we’re very excited for what’s next.”
- The EU is scrutinizing how Apple, Google, and Microsoft tackle online scams. The European Union wants to see if Microsoft, Apple, and Google are doing enough to stop online scams on their platforms. Regulators are looking at Microsoft’s Bing search engine primarily, and whether it has fake search results that lead to scams. It’s at the information request stage right now, but it could lead to the four companies being investigated more closely and potential fines in the future.
- Samsung might be saying goodbye to OneDrive photo backups. Microsoft and Samsung have enjoyed an Android partnership for more than five years now that has resulted in Samsung using OneDrive for backing up photos in its gallery app. Android Authority has discovered that this partnership might be coming to an end, after references to Samsung pulling OneDrive as a cloud backup option have been spotted in a gallery app update. I asked Microsoft to comment on this, but the company refused to discuss it.
- Discord for Windows on Arm is nearly here. Discord has been testing a native version of its communication app for Windows on Arm in recent months, and it looks like it’s nearly ready to roll out to Qualcomm-powered Windows devices. Devin Arthur has spotted that Discord’s ARM64 app has now reached public test build status. You can download the app for yourself, and hopefully it’s only a matter of weeks before it’s officially released.
Just a heads up that I’ll be out for a couple of weeks in October, so issues will be a little lighter next month.
I’m still always keen to hear from readers, so please drop a comment here, or you can reach me at [email protected] if you want to discuss anything else. If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s secret projects, you can reach me via email at [email protected] or speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01. I’m also tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d prefer to chat there.
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