One of the hottest new browsers is also the best thing that’s happened to my YouTube experience

We hadn’t even heard of agentic AI until recently, and now suddenly, companies like Google, OpenAI, and others are betting big on the tech. These aren’t just chatbots that answer your questions; they’re smart assistants that actually get things done for you. Think of it as AI with initiative. An agentic AI won’t just help you find the best coffee shop in your area — it’ll figure out what beans they use, order them for you from Amazon, and even schedule a recurring delivery if you want. But that’s just a basic, surface-level example. The real magic is in how these systems are evolving. They’re increasingly able to make decisions, take actions, and accomplish goals with little human input. And Perplexity’s Comet Assistant is a prime example of what this kind of AI can do when embedded into something we’ve used for decades — the web browser.

When I first fired up Comet, Perplexity’s brand-new AI browser, currently in invite-only beta for Mac and Windows, I didn’t expect my browsing experience to change this dramatically. Built on Chromium, the browser is surprisingly compatible with all my Chrome extensions and allowed a one-click migration of all my Chrome data. I expected some heavy lifting while moving from Chrome to Comet, but it was smooth as butter.

The real magic, though, is the Comet Assistant. It’s an AI agent that you can pull up over any web page to help with tasks, answer questions, and basically act like a super-powered sidekick. While my colleague Karandeep has already covered its broader capabilities that make Google Chrome feel outdated, I want to tell you how it specifically revolutionized my YouTube watching experience, which is saying a lot for someone like me.

I’m not YouTube’s typical audience. As I’ve ranted in the past while grumbling about being pushed into YouTube Premium (I eventually caved), I don’t use the platform as a constant source of entertainment. For me, YouTube is a utility. Life with two toddlers, a full-time job here at AA, and a schedule where every minute counts (no, I’m not the president, just a mom trying to survive) leaves me no time to watch long videos. So my YouTube time is functional, and I only turn to the platform when I need to.

Whether it’s a video on how to assemble kids’ furniture, fix my husband’s broken PlayStation controller, cook something special for Saturday dinner, or catch a JerryRigEverything teardown (just for the satisfaction), I’m there with a purpose. Sometimes, I’ll even indulge in a music video or two, but that’s about as far as I go. In short, my time is limited and valuable. Even if I wanted to binge-watch for hours, I simply can’t. Also, unlike most users today who watch YouTube on their TVs — according to YouTube’s own stats — I almost exclusively watch it on my laptop, in a browser.

With the Comet assistant always accessible in the browser, I can ask for summaries of videos instead of digging through clunky transcripts, or worse, watching whole videos. Instead, I can have a normal, natural-sounding chat with the Comet Assistant, and everything I’m looking for pops up right in the browser’s side panel.

Take, for example, the Pixel 10 Pro rumor roundup video we recently posted on Android Authority’s YouTube channel. I didn’t have time to sit through the full 11-minute video, so I asked Comet’s Assistant to summarize all the new details in bullet points (see image above).

In the same breath, I asked it to check if the Pixel 10 Pro was available for pre-order on the Google Store. Now, I already knew the phone isn’t launching until next month, but I was curious to see how the AI handled the request. And it nailed it. It not only gave me a neat summary of the video but also pulled accurate information about the phone’s availability from the Google Store, all without me having to leave the YouTube window. It even told me I could sign up for launch notifications, and when I asked it to do that too, it went ahead and signed me up. That’s a total gamechanger, not just for time-starved, lazy YouTube watchers like me, but for anyone who wants to go beyond just passively watching content and act on the information instead.

Another magical use case I stumbled upon was while watching recipe videos. Comet’s Assistant didn’t just summarize the cooking process (in as much detail or brevity as I wanted), it also let me say things like, “Order the ingredients for this recipe,” and then just went off to Amazon, found the items, added them to my cart, and placed the order. I didn’t need to give it extra permissions or jump through hoops. Since I was already logged into Amazon in my browser, the items automatically showed up in my cart. It even made the smart distinction between Amazon Fresh and regular Amazon items, and only added the ingredients it figured I wouldn’t already have, skipping over pantry staples. That’s really a stroke of genius. Honestly, I wish my husband could shop this well for a YouTube recipe, but alas, he’s only human.

I also took the Comet Assistant for a spin with a few other YouTube tasks, and once again, it didn’t disappoint. It often helped me skip directly to the exact parts of a video I cared about. I also asked it to create a playlist of Galaxy Z Fold 7 YouTube Shorts: done and saved to my library in seconds. Then I tried the same with music and asked it to find similar songs to the one I was listening to. Sure enough, it did and added a new pop mix to my library without a hitch. No endless clicking, thinking, no distractions. Just results.

The best part is you can see the AI’s thought process and the actions it’s taking in real time right there in the browser’s side panel. It’s like you’re in its brain. If the Assistant is working on something that might take a bit, like adding a long list of ingredients to your Amazon cart, you don’t have to sit and wait. You can carry on with your day, browse or watch something else, take a quick lunch break, and return to find the task done. It all happens quietly in the background.

Now, I know Google’s not sitting still. The company has rolled out Gemini inside the YouTube app with the handy “Ask about this video” button, but honestly, it doesn’t come close to what Comet’s AI assistant can do on the browser. I’d love to see Google take Gemini to this level on mobile, especially since a lot of YouTube viewing happens there.

Sure, Google has Gemini integrated into Chrome for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, but its accessibility is limited, given that it’s only available in the US for English-language users on desktop. I’d love to give it a spin when it’s available here in my country, but for now, Comet is the AI browser experience I’ve been craving. I really wanted Chrome to be my first taste of an agentic AI-powered browser, but alas, that may not happen for some time.

All said and done, the future of browsers is looking bloody exciting. Comet is proof that AI isn’t just about answering questions anymore. It’s about making everyday tasks more convenient, and in my case, it’s making YouTube a whole lot less painful and a lot more productive.